English

edit

Etymology

edit

Coined in 1564, from Latin levitās (lightness, frivolity), from levis (lightness (in weight)).[1] Cognate to lever, and more distantly, light.

Pronunciation

edit

Noun

edit

levity (usually uncountable, plural levities)

  1. Lightness of manner or speech, frivolity; flippancy; lack of appropriate seriousness; inclination to make a joke of serious matters.
  2. (obsolete) Lack of steadiness.
  3. The state or quality of being light, buoyancy.
    • 1925, F[rancis] Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, published 1953, →ISBN, →OCLC:
      Most of the confidences were unsought - frequently I have feigned sleep, preoccupation or a hostile levity []
    • 1838, Robert Montgomery Bird, Peter Pilgrim:
      [] it would really seem as if there was something nomadic in our natures, a principle of levity and restlessness []
    • 1869, Mary Somerville, On Molecular and Microscopic Science, 1.1.12:
      Hydrogen [] rises in the air on account of its levity.
  4. (countable) A lighthearted or frivolous act.
    • 1665, Daniel Defoe, A Journal of the Plague Year[1], Gutenberg:
      For though it be something wonderful to tell that any should have hearts so hardened, in the midst of such a calamity, as to rob and steal, yet certain it is that all sorts of villainies, and even levities and debaucheries, were then practiced in the town as openly as ever: I will not say quite as frequently, because the number of people were many ways lessened.
    • 1872, J. Fenimore Cooper, The Bravo[2]:
      [] or do the people joy less than common in their levities?"
    • 1882, H.D. Traill, Sterne[3]:
      His incorrigible levities had probably lost him the countenance of most of his more serious acquaintances [] .

Antonyms

edit
The terms below need to be checked and allocated to the definitions (senses) of the headword above. Each term should appear in the sense for which it is appropriate. For synonyms and antonyms you may use the templates {{syn|en|...}} or {{ant|en|...}}.

Derived terms

edit

Translations

edit

References

edit
  1. ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “levity”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.