This week’s theme
Words with surprising etymological journeys

This week’s words
pummel
balladmonger
paregoric
jocund


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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(JAH/JOH-kuhnd)

MEANING:

adjective: Cheerful; lively.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin jocundus, from jucundus (pleasant), from juvare (to help, please, or delight). Earliest documented use: 1380.

NOTES:

At first glance, jocund appears to be a close relative of jocular. It isn’t. Its origin is in Latin jucundus (pleasant), not jocus (joke). But the similarity of its first syllable to Latin jocus resulted in a Mr. Potato Head situation: Latin speakers took the head from jocus and slapped it onto the body of jucundus, leaving the original meaning intact.

USAGE:

“A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company”
William Wordsworth; I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud; 1804.

See more usage examples of jocund in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: