merriment

plural merriments

1. countableuncountableA state of enjoyable exuberance.

   It is recorded that this remarkable prophecy, now largely fulfilled, was received with much merriment—an undeserved fate.

   1955 November, G. Machell, “Railway Development at Aylesbury - 1”, in Railway Magazine, pages 741-742

   2 more examples

   Hugh laughed again, and with such thorough abandonment to his mad humour, that his limbs seemed dislocated, and his whole frame in danger of tumbling to pieces; but Mr Tappertit, so far from receiving this extreme merriment with any irritation, was pleased to regard it with the utmost favour, and even to join in it, so far as one of his gravity and station could, with any regard to that decency and decorum which men in high places are expected to maintain.

   1841, Charles Dickens, Barnaby Rudge

   I made so merry with all of them, and the merriment complicated my family relations so much, that not even the devil can straighten it out.

   Part 1 published in 1605, Part 2 in 1615, translated in 2003, Miguel de Cervantes and translated by Edith Grossman, Don Quixote, page 167

   Synonyms: merriness, mirth, ardor, alacrity, celerity, energy, joie de vivre, enthusiasm

2. countableuncountablePlayful fun.

   Alas poore Yorick […] VVhere be your Jibes now? Your Gambals? Your Songs? Your flaſhes of Merriment that were wont to ſet the Table on a Rore?

   c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i], page 278, column 1

   1 more example

   For to what purpose were it to clog our stomachs with dainties, junkets, and the like stuff, unless our eyes and ears, nay whole mind, were likewise entertained with jests, merriments, and laughter?

   1668, John Wilson, The Praise of Folly, translation of original by Desiderius Erasmus, published 1509