gelast

English

Etymology

From Ancient Greek γελαστής (gelastḗs, “laugher”).

Noun

gelast (plural gelasts)

1. (literary, rare) One who tends to laugh; a laugher.

   Antonyms: agelast, nonlaugher

   • 1902, James Sully, An Essay on Laughter: Its Forms, Its Causes, Its Development and Its Value, London,  […]: Longmans, Green, and Co., page 2:

     Even if we grant that the "gelasts" are getting reduced to the dimensions of a petty sect, the consideration need not deter us from choosing laughter as our theme.

   • 1903 March, “Views and Reviews”, in The Catholic World, volume LXXVI, number 456, New York, N.Y.: The Paulist Fathers, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 839:

     The phenomena presented by the misogelast, or laughter-hater; the agelast, or non-laugher; the gelast, who is the laugher himself, and the hypergelast, who is the laugher gone intemperate, are looked into, and as far as possible accounted for, by Dr. Sully.

   • 1980 Fall, Gert Raeithel, “American Humor as an Experience of Growth”, in American Humor: An Interdisciplinary Newsletter, number 2, American Humor Studies Association, →ISSN, →JSTOR, →OCLC, page 4:

     So it might well be the other way round; not the agelast or misolgeast is "somewhat insensitive" to the ways of his fellows but the gelast or hypergelast.

   • 1988, Robin Andrew Haig, “Personal Attributes and Humor”, in The Anatomy of Humor: Biopsychosocial and Therapeutic Perspectives, Springfield, I.L.: Charles C Thomas, →ISBN, page 79:

     A personality profjle of the gelast or agelast has not so far been convincingly established, nor has a pattern of humor been consistently demonstrated in individuals with different personality types.

Related terms

• agelast
• agelastic
• gelastic
• hypergelast
• hypergelastic
• misogelast
• misogelastic

 

Dutch

Pronunciation

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Participle

gelast

1. past participle of gelasten
2. past participle of lassen

Declension

Declension of gelast
uninflected	gelast
inflected	gelaste
		positive
predicative/adverbial		gelast
indefinite	m./f. sing.	gelaste
	n. sing.	gelast
	plural	gelaste
definite		gelaste
partitive		gelasts