felicific

comparative more felicific · superlative most felicific

1. rarehuman sciencesOf, pertaining to, or producing pleasure or happiness.

   Has conduct worth in and for itself, or only as its consequences are felicific as regards the social welfare?

   1895, John Grier Hibben, “Automatism in Morality”, in International Journal of Ethics, volume 5, number 4, page 467

   2 more examples

   It is plain that for Jane Austen the settled habit of moral behavior was of far more importance than spontaneity of moral response, though that in turn was preferable to a calculated weighing of advantages, a point well illustrated when Elizabeth ironically advises Jane that if she is in doubt about whether she ought to accept Bingley she should decide the matter by striking a felicific balance.

   1980, Philip Drew, “Jane Austen and Bishop Butler”, in Nineteenth-Century Fiction, volume 35, number 2, pages 141–142

   The Langham is proof of the felicific power of good architecture, the power to promote, both in its inhabitants and in passers-by, happiness.

   2005 February 7, James Gardner, “Remembering a Great Institution”, in New York Sun, retrieved 25 Jan 2009