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felicity|fɪˈlɪsɪtɪ|
Forms: 4–6 feli-, felycite(e, -yte, 6–7 felicitie, -ye, (6 Sc. felyscitie, -syte), 5– felicity.
[a. OF. felicité (Fr. félicité), ad. L. fēlīcitātem, f. fēlix happy.]
1. The state of being happy; happiness (in mod. use with stronger sense, intense happiness, bliss); a particular instance or kind of this.
c1386Chaucer Clerk's T. 53 We mighten live in more felicitee. 1441Pol. Poems (Rolls) II. 206, I felle ffrom alle felycyté. 1552Lyndesay Monarche 5093 Fairweill all vaine felyscitie! 1602Shakes. Ham. v. ii. 358 Absent thee from felicitie awhile. 1651Ld. Digby, etc. Lett. conc. Relig. i. 2, I aspire yet to a farr greater felicity. 1722Wollaston Relig. Nat. ix. 217 The injoyment of an humble..expectation of felicity hereafter. 1794Mrs. Radcliffe Myst. Udolpho i, Conjugal felicity and parental duties divided his attention. 1807Med. Jrnl. XVII. 541 Sincerely wishing you every felicity. 1839Hallam Hist. Lit. (1855) III. 118 Felicity..consists not in having prospered but in prospering.
Comb.1799R. Warner Walk (1800) 83 Those felicity hunters, the teazing insects of fashion.
†b. Phrases: to have, take felicity in or to with inf.: to take delight or pleasure in or to. to place, set one's felicity in: to find one's chief delight in.
1542Udall in Lett. Lit. Men (Camden) 6 Settying his moste delite and felicitee in the veray infamie of the same. 1596Spenser State Irel. Wks. (1862) 517/1 The..Northern Nations..tooke no felicity in that countrey. 1622R. Hawkins Voy. S. Sea (1847) 153 A man known to put his felicitie in that vice. 1691Hartcliffe Virtues 7 The more polite..sort of Men place their Felicity in Honours. 1758Jortin Erasmus I. 175 He took a felicity to set out sundry Commentaries upon the Fathers works.
2. That which causes or promotes happiness; a source of happiness, a blessing.
c1385Chaucer L.G.W. 2588 Hypermnestra, This thought her was felicité. 1490Caxton Eneydos xxvii. 105 O felycyte merueillouse wherof I shulde be well happy. 1597Morley Introd. Mus. 182 His coine..is his only hope and felicitie. 1634W. Tirwhyt Balzac's Lett. 159 The happinesse of your Family..is a publick Felicity. a1661Fuller Worthies (1840) I. 211 God bestoweth personal felicities on some far above the proportion of others. 1734tr. Rollin's Anc. Hist. (1827) Pref. 27 A woman who formed his felicity. 1874Maurice Friendship Bks. viii. 221 He also had many felicities he was thankful for.
3. Prosperity; good fortune, success. Now rare.
1393Gower Conf. III. 118 He hath of proprete Good spede and great felicite. 1494Fabyan Chron. vii. 550 It is not possyble for that Kyngedome to stande in felycite. 1533Bellenden Livy ii. (1822) 171 The Faderis..faucht with grete felicite aganis the Volschis. 1652–62Heylin Cosmogr. iii. (1673) 7/1 He was..vanquished by the valour and felicity of L. Sylla. 1738Neal Hist. Purit. IV. 274 The old Clergy..were intoxicated with their new felicity. 1780Harris Philol. Enq. Wks. (1841) 464 Athens..enjoyed more than all others the general felicity. 1865Carlyle Fredk. Gt. V. xv. i. 271 This General's strategic felicity and his domestic were fatally cut-down.
†b. pl. Prosperous circumstances; successful enterprises; successes.
1625Bacon Ess. Adversity (Arb.) 505 Describing the Afflictions of Iob, then the Felicities of Salomon. 1694Falle Jersey i. 29 The Spaniards: Whose aims..were defeated by the Felicities of that Queen. a1731Atterbury (J.), The felicities of her wonderful reign may be complete.
c. A stroke of fortune; a fortunate trait (in an individual).
1761Hume Hist. Eng. III. lxi. 326 The easy subduing of this insurrection..was a singular felicity to the protector. 1779–81Johnson L.P., Pope Wks. IV. 6 It was the felicity of Pope to rate himself at his real value. 1861Tulloch Eng. Purit. ii. 284 It was the felicity of Cromwell to detect this gift of government.
d. Singular fortunateness (of an occurrence). Cf. 4.
1809–10Coleridge Friend (1865) 157 By a rare felicity of accident.
4. A happy faculty in art or speech; admirable appropriateness or grace of invention or expression.
1605Bacon Adv. Learn. i. Ded. §2 Your Maiesties manner of speech is indeed..full of facilitie, and felicitie. 1727Pope, etc. Art of Sinking 82 Many painters..have with felicity copied a small-pox. 1833Lamb Elia Ser. ii. Pop. Fallacies (1865) 411 We must pronounce [this pun] a monument of curious felicity. 1873Symonds Grk. Poets x. 336 Moschus is remarkable for occasional felicities of language. 1876J. H. Newman Hist. Sk. I. ii. xii. 295 A style, which adapts itself with singular felicity to every class of subjects.
b. A happy inspiration, an admirably well-chosen expression.
1665J. Spencer Vulg. Prophecies 74 The extempore felicities of the Orators of those times. 1779–81Johnson L.P., Denham Wks. II. 78 Those felicities which cannot be produced at will by wit and labour. 1870Lowell Among my Bks. Ser. i. (1873) 176 It is from such felicities that the rhetoricians deduce..their statutes.
†5. Of a planet: A favourable aspect. Obs.
c1391Chaucer Astrol. ii. §4 Thei haue a fortunat planete in hir assendent & ȝit in his felicite. 1393Gower Conf. III. 116 And upon such felicite Stant Jupiter in his degre. |