Happiness, n.
Etymology: [From Happy.]
The children are dancing. How can you tell they are happy?
Peasant Children Dancing, Le Nain (French), 1650s. Cleveland Museum of Art.1. Good luck; good fortune; prosperity. All happiness bechance to thee in Milan! Shak.
2. An agreeable feeling or condition of the soul arising from good fortune or propitious happening of any kind; the possession of those circumstances or that state of being which is attended enjoyment; the state of being happy; contentment; joyful satisfaction; felicity; blessedness.
3. Fortuitous elegance; unstudied grace; -- used especially of language. Some beauties yet no precepts can declare, For there's a happiness, as well as care. Pope.
Syn. -- Happiness, Felicity, Blessedness, Bliss. Happiness is generic, and is applied to almost every kind of enjoyment except that of the animal appetites; felicity is a more formal word, and is used more sparingly in the same general sense, but with elevated associations; blessedness is applied to the most refined enjoyment arising from the purest social, benevolent, and religious affections; bliss denotes still more exalted delight, and is applied more appropriately to the joy anticipated in heaven. O happiness! our being's end and aim! Pope. Others in virtue place felicity, But virtue joined with riches and long life; In corporal pleasures he, and careless ease. Milton. His overthrow heaped happiness upon him; For then, and not till then, he felt himself, And found the blessedness of being little. Shak.
Shades of meaning
Gratification is the giving any mental or physical desire something that it craves; satisfaction is the giving such a desire all that it craves. Happiness is the positively agreeable experience that springs from the possession of good, the gratification or satisfaction of the desires or the relief from pain and evil. Comfort may be almost wholly negative, being found in security or relief from that which pains or annoys; there is comfort by a warm fireside on a wintry night; the sympathy of a true friend affords comfort in sorrow. Enjoyment is more positive, always implying something to be definitely and consciously delighted in; a sick person finds comfort in relief from pain, while he may be far from a state of enjoyment. Pleasure is still more vivid, being an arousing of the faculties to an intensely agreeable activity; satisfaction is more tranquil than pleasure, being the agreeable consciousness of having all that our faculties demand or crave; when a worthy pleasure is past, a worthy satisfaction remains. As referring to a mental state, gratification is used to denote a mild form of happiness resulting from some incident not of very great importance; satisfaction should properly express a happiness deeper, more complete, and more abiding; but as intellect or sensibilities of a low order may find satisfaction in that which is very poor or unworthy, the word has come to be feeble and tame in ordinary use. Happiness is more positive than comfort, enjoyment, or satisfaction, more serene and rational than pleasure; pleasure is of necessity transient; happiness is abiding, and may be eternal; thus, we speak of pleasures, but the plural of happiness is scarcely used. Happiness, in the full sense, is mental or spiritual or both, and is viewed as resulting from some worthy gratification or satisfaction; we may speak of a brute as experiencing comfort or pleasure, but scarcely as in possession of happiness; we speak of vicious pleasure, delight, or joy, but not of vicious happiness. Felicity is a philosophical term, colder and more formal than happiness. Gladness is happiness that overflows, expressing itself in countenance, voice, manner, and action. Joy is more intense than happiness, deeper than gladness, to which it is akin, nobler and more enduring than pleasure. Gaiety is more superficial than joy, more demonstrative than gladness. Rejoicing is happiness or joy that finds utterance in word, song, festivity, etc. Delight is vivid, overflowing happiness of a somewhat transient kind; ecstasy is a state of extreme or extravagant delight so that the one affected by it seems almost beside himself with joy; rapture is closely allied to ecstasy, but is more serene, exalted, and enduring. Triumph is such joy as results from victory, success, achievement. Blessedness is at once the state and the sense of being divinely blessed; as, the blessedness of the righteous. Bliss is ecstatic, perfected happiness; as, the bliss of heaven. Compare COMFORT.