pleasance

See also: Pleasance

English

Alternative forms

• plaisance, plaisaunce, pleasaunce

Etymology

From Middle English plaisaunce, plesaunce, from Old French plaisance.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈplɛzəns/

Noun

pleasance (countable and uncountable, plural pleasances)

1. A pleasure ground laid out with shady walks, trees and shrubs, statuary, and ornamental water; a secluded part of a garden. [from 16th c.]
   • 1859, John Ruskin, The Two Paths:

     the pleasances of old Elizabethan houses

   • 1924 June 4, E[dward] M[organ] Forster, A Passage to India, London: Edward Arnold & Co., →OCLC:

     It is a tropical pleasance, washed by a noble river.

2. (obsolete) Willingness to please, or the action of pleasing; courtesy. [14th–17th c.]
3. (obsolete) The feeling of being pleased; pleasure, delight. [14th–19th c.]
   • 1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Hugh Singleton, […], →OCLC; reprinted as H[einrich] Oskar Sommer, editor, The Shepheardes Calender […], London: John C. Nimmo, […], 1890, →OCLC, folio 6, verso:

     Now stands the Brere like a lord alone, / Puffed up with pryde and vaine pleasaunce.

Translations

pleasure ground laid out with shady walks, trees and shrubs, statuary, and ornamental water; a secluded part of a garden — see pleasure garden

Further reading

• “pleasance”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.