felicity

See also: Felicity

English

WOTD – 21 March 2021

Etymology

From Middle English felicite (“bliss, happiness, joy; delight, pleasure; a source of happiness; good fortune; prosperity; well-being; of a planet: in an influential position”) [and other forms],^[1] borrowed from Old French felicité (modern French félicité (“bliss, happiness; felicity”)), from Latin fēlīcitātem, the accusative singular of fēlīcitās (“fertility, fruitfulness; happiness, felicity; good fortune; success”), from fēlīx (“happy; blessed, fortunate, lucky; fertile, fruitful; prosperous; auspicious, favourable”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁(y)- (“to nurse, suckle”))^[2] + -itās (a variant of -tās (suffix forming nouns indicating a state of being)).

Pronunciation

(Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /fɪˈlɪsɪti/
(General American) IPA^(key): /fəˈlɪsəti/, [-ɾi]
Audio (General American): (file)
Rhymes: -ɪsɪti
Hyphenation: fe‧li‧ci‧ty

Noun

felicity (countable and uncountable, plural felicities)

(uncountable) The condition of being happy.
- 1978 [1976], Leszek Kołakowski, translated by P[aul] S[teven] Falla, Main Currents of Marxism, volume I: The Founders, Oxford: Clarendon Press, translation of Główne nurty marksizmu: powstanie (in Polish), →ISBN, →OCLC, page 411:
  Although he shows traces of the Romantic belief in the felicity of the savage, these are not numerous or important and there is no suggestion in his work that mankind could or should revert to a primitive life-style.
1. (uncountable) Intense happiness.
  Synonyms: beatitude, bliss, euphoria, joie de vivre, joy, mirth, rapture; see also Thesaurus:happiness
  
  Antonym: infelicity
  - 1513, Henry Bradshaw, edited by Edward Hawkins, The Holy Lyfe and History of Saynt Werburge: Very Frutefull for All Christen People to Rede (Remains Historical & Literary Connected with the Palatine Counties of Lancaster and Chester Published by The Chetham Society; volume XV), […] The Chetham Society, published 1848:
    Whan this ſayd monument diſcouered was / Suche a ſuauite and fragrant odoure / Aſcended from the corps by ſingular grace / Paſſyng all worldly ſwetnes and ſauour / That all there present that day and hour / Suppoſed they had ben / in the felicite / Of erthely paradiſe / without ambiguite.
  - 1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC, page 3:
    [T]he wiſe Man gave his Teſtimony to this, as the juſt Standard of true Felicity, when he prayed to have neither Poverty nor Riches.
  - 1814 May 9, [Jane Austen], chapter I, in Mansfield Park: […], volume I, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 2:
    […] Mr. and Mrs. Norris began their career of conjugal felicity with very little less than a thousand a year.
  - 1862, M[arcus] Aurelius Antoninus [i.e., Marcus Aurelius], “Book V”, in George Long, transl., The Thoughts of the Emperor M. Aurelius Antoninus, London: Bell and Daldy, […], →OCLC, page 66:
    For two reasons then it is right to be content with that which happens to thee; the one, because it was done for thee and prescribed for thee, and in a manner had reference to thee, originally from the most ancient causes spun with thy destiny; and the other, because even that which comes severally to every man is to the power which administers the universe a cause of felicity and perfection, nay even of its very continuance.
2. (countable) An instance of intense happiness.
(uncountable) An apt and pleasing style in speech, writing, etc.; (countable) an apt and pleasing choice of words.
(uncountable, rare) Good luck; success; (countable) An instance of unexpected good luck; a stroke of luck; also, a lucky characteristic.
Synonyms: good fortune, fortuity; see also Thesaurus:good luck
(uncountable, semiotics) Reproduction of a sign with fidelity.
The quotation was rendered with felicity.
(countable) Something that is either a source of happiness or particularly apt.
- c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene vii:
  […] to weare our ſelues & neuer reſt,
  Untill we reach the ripeſt fruites of all,
  That perfect bliſſe and ſole felicitie,
  The ſweet fruition of an earthly crowne.
- 2007 August 7, Joshua Ferris, “Table for two”, in The New York Times‎^[1], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 25 December 2020:
  The season’s main attraction, the felicities of the sun, dimmed in the light of our competition and our growing friendliness.
(uncountable, economics) Period (as opposed to lifetime) utility.
- 2017, Ben J. Heidra, Foundations of Modern Macroeconomics, third edition, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 756:
  In equation (19.24) $U_{C}(\cdot )$ is the marginal felicity of consumption[.]

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

happiness — see happiness

apt and pleasing style in speech, writing, etc.

Chinese:
Mandarin: 得體 / 得体 (zh) (détǐ)
Esperanto: feliĉego
French: félicité (fr) f
Greek: ευδαιμονία (el) f (evdaimonía)
Italian: felicità (it) f
Macedonian: у́месност f (úmesnost), соо́дветност f (soódvetnost)
Portuguese: felicidade (pt) f
Spanish: felicidad (es)

apt and pleasing choice of words

good luck, success — see good luck,‎ success

instance of unexpected good luck — see stroke of luck

lucky characteristic

reproduction of a sign with fidelity

something that is either a source of happiness or particularly apt

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

French: ^{(please verify)} félicité (fr)
Italian: ^{(please verify)} felicità (it)

References

^ “felicitẹ̄, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
^ “felicity, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1895; “felicity, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.