blitheness

English

Etymology

From Middle English *blithenesse, from Old English blīþnes, from Proto-West Germanic *blīþinassī, equivalent to blithe +‎ -ness. Cognate with West Frisian blidens (“blitheness, joy”), Old High German blīdnissa (“joy”).

Noun

blitheness (uncountable)

1. The characteristic of being blithe.
   • 1872, [Thomas Hardy], “VI: Yalbury Wood and the Keeper's House”, in Under the Greenwood Tree: A Rural Painting of the Dutch School, volume I, London: Tinsley Brothers, →OCLC, part II, page 192:

     A mood of blitheness rarely experienced even by young men was Dick’s on the following Monday morning. It was the week after the Easter holidays, and he was journeying along with Smart the mare and the light spring-cart, watching the damp slopes of the hill-sides as they streamed in the warmth of the sun, […]