Jocund

WORD OF THE DAY


JOCUND \ JAH-kund \ adjective


Definition
: marked by or suggestive of high spirits and lively mirthfulness


Examples
Clayton gave a jocund shout when he entered the room and saw the many friends who had come for his surprise 50th birthday celebration.


"The jocund nature of Beethoven's Second Symphony is in utter contradiction with Beethoven's pathetic letter expressing the despair of inevitable deafness, both written at approximately the same time."
— D. S. Crafts, The Albuquerque (New Mexico) Journal, 13 Jan. 2012


Did You Know?
Don't let the etymology of jocund play tricks on you. The word comes from jucundus, a Latin word meaning "agreeable" or "delightful," and ultimately from the Latin verb juvare, meaning "to help."
But jucundus looks and sounds a bit like jocus, the Latin word for "joke." These two roots took a lively romp through many centuries together and along the way the lighthearted jocus influenced the spelling and meaning of jucundus, an interaction that eventually produced our Modern English word jocund in the 14th century.