Mirth By Deane Barker • June 16, 2023 • Definition: overt happiness or merriment From context, this usually means externally obvious happiness – laughing, dancing, etc. It might be more accurately described as celebration. It’s from the Old English word for “merry.” Why I Looked It Up I sort of knew what this was from context, but was curious if there was a specific definition apart from general happiness. I found this in a book which I can’t remember (this was quoted from a personal letter – at least, it looks that way from the picture of the page that I took): By all ordinary rules, I ought to have laughed more loudly at these extravagances than at the far milder theories which had previously moved me to mirth; yet something in the tone of the letter made me take it with paradoxical seriousness. Note that the writer correlates mirth with laughing loudly.