See also: Bliss

English edit

Etymology edit

From Middle English bliss, from Old English bliss, variant of earlier blīds, blīþs (joy, gladness), from Proto-West Germanic *blīþisi (joy, goodness, kindness).

Pronunciation edit

  • IPA(key): /blɪs/
  • Rhymes: -ɪs
  • (file)

Noun edit

bliss (countable and uncountable, plural blisses)

  1. Perfect happiness.
    The afternoon at the spa was utter bliss.
    • a. 1851, William Wordsworth, “The French Revolution as It Appeared to Enthusiasts at Its Commencement”, in Henry [Hope] Reed, editor, The Complete Poetical Works of William Wordsworth, Philadelphia, Pa.: Hayes & Zell, [], published 1860, →OCLC, page 188:
      Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive, / But to be young was very heaven!
    • 1918 August, Katherine Mansfield [pseudonym; Kathleen Mansfield Murry], “Bliss”, in Bliss and Other Stories, London: Constable & Company, published 1920, →OCLC, page 116:
      What can you do if you are thirty and, turning the corner of your own street, you are overcome, suddenly, by a feeling of bliss—absolute bliss!—as though you'd suddenly swallowed a bright piece of that late afternoon sun and it burned in your bosom, sending out a little shower of sparks into every particle, into every finger and toe?

Derived terms edit

Translations edit

Old English edit

Etymology edit

From earlier blīds, blīþs, from Proto-West Germanic *blīþisi.

Pronunciation edit

Noun edit

bliss f

  1. joy, bliss

Inflection edit

Descendants edit

  • Middle English: blys, blice, blisce, blise, blesse
    • English: bliss