Word of the Day Archive
Sunday August 8, 1999
jovial \JOH-vee-uhl\ , adjective:
Merry; joyous; jolly; characterized by mirth or jollity.
One pupil of the sixteen-year-old Custer remembered him as "socially inclined," jovial, and full of life.
-- Louise Barnett, Touched by Fire
The Puritans took a dim view of the jovial, amiable cleric who liked to have a pot of ale at one of Purleigh's pubs.
-- Willard Sterne Randall, George Washington: A Life
He smiled, joked and at times seemed downright jovial.
-- "Piazza Booed Again (Till He Homers)", New York Times, August 22, 1998
Jovial ultimately derives from the Latin jovialis, "of or pertaining to Jupiter." (The planet Jupiter was thought to make those born under it joyful or jovial.)
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for jovial
