gaiety

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   The state of being happy or merry.

   There was much gaiety at the ball.

2. 2
   noun

   Merrymaking or festivity.

   And he would tell her all sorts of wonders, old-world gaieties, long before she was born; and how finely the great Mr. [George Frideric] Handel played upon the harpischord^([sic]) in the Music Hall, and how his talk was in German, Latin, French, English, Italian, and half-a-dozen languages beside, […]

3. 3
   noun

   a festive merry feeling

4. 4
   noun

   a gay feeling

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French gaieté, from gai. By surface analysis, gay + -ety.