glee

Word Origin & History

Old English gliu, gliw "entertainment, mirth, jest, play, sport," presumably from a Proto-Germanic *gleujam but absent in other Germanic languages except for the rare Old Norse gly "joy;" probably related to glad. A poetry word in Old English and Middle English, obsolete c.1500-c.1700, it somehow found its way back to currency late 18c. In Old English, an entertainer was a gleuman (female gleo-mægden). Glee club (1814) is from the secondary sense of "unaccompanied part-song" (1650s) as a form of musical entertainment.

Example Sentences for glee

The old lady turned back into the house, and her face was alive with glee.

Right at him came the donkey, braying as though in glee at the trick he had played.

What a sudden sort of glee the night he discovered Bernard Shaw!

But suddenly the glee died—as suddenly as if a button had snapped off the current.

At the gate of Elm Cottage the dog came up to him, barking with glee.

"Ay, faith, you do," The McMurrough chimed in with a sort of glee.

Nettie lifted upon her, eyes that danced with mischief and glee.

Say, Belle, do you know they took my voice and fitted a glee club to it?

The gods shouted and laughed with glee when they saw how all his efforts were in vain.

But the serious mood was soon displaced by a fresh access of glee.

glee

happiness

heehaw

jocoseness

jocularity

jocundity

jolliness

jollity

joviality

glee

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