blithe
Part of speech: adj
Morphological type: simple
Etymology: From Middle English blithe (“glad, happy, joyful; causing joy, joyous; gentle, mild; gracious, merciful; bright, shining; beautiful, fair”) [and other forms], from Old English blīþe (“happy, gentle”), from Proto-West Germanic *blīþī, from Proto-Germanic *blīþiz (“friendly; gentle, mild; pleasing”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰlī- (“fine; light; pleasant”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- (“shiny; white”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian bliede (“glad, cheerful, merry”), West Frisian bliid (“cheerful, glad”), Dutch blij (“happy”), German Low German blied (“happy, lucky”).
Inflected forms:
form: blither
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: blithest
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: blythe
pos: adj
tags: alternative
Senses:
gloss: Casually careless or indifferent; showing a lack of concern; nonchalant.
pos: adj
examples: She had a blithe disregard of cultures outside the United States.
From mother and nurse it was a guerilla^([sic]) gunfire of commands, and blithe, quicksilver disobedience from the three blonde, never-still little girls.
In this article, I examine the documentation and source code of Wikilambda to critique both its ideals and its implementation. There is in fact an intimate link between the project’s ideals and its blithe ignorance of “decades of programming language research.” The project expresses, in a typically extreme way, a certain kind of hacker utopianism.
gloss: Cheerful, happy.
pos: adj
tags: Scotland
examples: And now ſweet Emperour be blithe againe,
And bury all thy feare in my deuiſes.
For that fair femal Troop thou ſawſt, that ſeemd
Of Goddeſſes, ſo blithe, ſo ſmooth, ſo gay,
Yet empty of good wherein conſiſts,
Womans domeſtic honour and chief praiſe; […]
Shou'd he return, that troop ſo blithe and bold,
With purple robes inwrought, and ſtiff with gold,
Precipitant in fear, wou'd wing their flight,
And curſe their cumbrous pride's unwieldy weight.
But not more blythe than sylvan court,
Than we have been at humbler sport;
Though small our pomp, and mean our game,
Our mirth, dear Marriot, was the same.
Tarry, tarry, ye wha were aye sae blythe to be at the meetings of the saints, and wad ride every muir in Scotland to find a conventicle.
Hail to thee, blithe spirit!
Bird thou never wert,
That from heaven, or near it,
Pourest thy full heart
In profuse strains of unpremeditated art.
He looked so irresistibly pleasant, in a word, that three or four good-humoured fellows said, "Good morning, sir! A merry Christmas to you!" And Scrooge said often afterwards, that of all the blithe sounds he had ever heard, those were the blithest in his ears.
I was feeling blithe, almost jocund.
To-night, however, she was even in a blither mood than usual. There was a dreaminess, a preoccupation, an exaltation, in the maternal look which the girl could not understand.
gloss: Fair, beautiful, comely; gracious, pleasant and attractive in manner.
pos: adj
tags: obsolete
examples: Thy garters fringed with the golde,
And siluer aglets hanging by,
Which made thee blithe for to beholde,
And yet thou wouldst not loue me.
There on Beds of Violets blew,
And freſh-blown Roſes waſht in dew,
Fill'd her with thee a daughter fair,
So buckſom, blith, and debonair.
Related words: bliss
Derived words: blitheful
blitheless
blithely
blithen
blitheness
blither
blithesome
Blythe
overblithe
unblithe
Translations: