What does "jovial" mean?
Jovial: Sunny; serene. [Obs.] "The heavens always joviall." Spenser.
Additional senses
- 2.Gay; merry; joyous; jolly; mirth-inspiring; hilarious; characterized by mirth or jollity; as, a jovial youth; a jovial company; a jovial poem. Be bright and jovial among your guests. Shak. His odes are some of them panegyrical, others moral; the rest are jovial or bacchanalian. Dryden. Note: This word is a relic of the belief in planetary influence. Other examples are saturnine, mercurial, martial, lunatic, etc.
Sources
- Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).
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- Published: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00 · Modified: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00