levity

English

WOTD – 23 July 2012

Etymology

Coined in 1564, from Latin levitās (“lightness, frivolity”), from levis (“lightness (in weight)”). Cognate to lever, and more distantly, light.

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /ˈlɛ.vɪ.ti/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

levity (usually uncountable, plural levities)

1. Lightness of manner or speech, frivolity; flippancy; lack of appropriate seriousness; inclination to make a joke of serious matters.
2. (obsolete) Lack of steadiness.
3. The state or quality of being light, buoyancy.
   • 1925, F[rancis] Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, published 1953, →ISBN, →OCLC:

     Most of the confidences were unsought - frequently I have feigned sleep, preoccupation or a hostile levity […]

   • 1838, Robert Montgomery Bird, Peter Pilgrim:

     […] it would really seem as if there was something nomadic in our natures, a principle of levity and restlessness […]

   • 1869, Mary Somerville, On Molecular and Microscopic Science, 1.1.12:

     Hydrogen […] rises in the air on account of its levity.

4. (countable) A lighthearted or frivolous act.
   • 1665, Daniel Defoe, A Journal of the Plague Year‎^[1], Gutenberg:

     For though it be something wonderful to tell that any should have hearts so hardened, in the midst of such a calamity, as to rob and steal, yet certain it is that all sorts of villainies, and even levities and debaucheries, were then practiced in the town as openly as ever: I will not say quite as frequently, because the number of people were many ways lessened.

   • 1872, J. Fenimore Cooper, The Bravo‎^[2]:

     […] or do the people joy less than common in their levities?"

   • 1882, H.D. Traill, Sterne‎^[3]:

     His incorrigible levities had probably lost him the countenance of most of his more serious acquaintances […] .

Antonyms

The terms below need to be checked and allocated to the definitions (senses) of the headword above. Each term should appear in the sense for which it is appropriate. For synonyms and antonyms you may use the templates {{syn|en|...}} or {{ant|en|...}}.

• gravity

Derived terms

• levitous

Translations

lightness of manner or speech

• Armenian: թեթեւություն (hy) (tʻetʻewutʻyun)
• Bulgarian: несериозност (bg) f (neserioznost)
• Czech: lehkomyslnost (cs) f, lehkovážnost f, zlehčování n
• Estonian: kerglus
• Finnish: kepeys (fi), kevytmielisyys (fi)
• French: nonchalance (fr) f, légèreté (fr) f
• German: Lockerheit f, Unbeschwertheit (de) f, Ungezwungenheit (de) f, Leichtfertigkeit (de) f, Leichtsinn (de) m, Leichtigkeit (de) f, Unernsthaftigkeit f
• Irish: éadroime f
• Latin: levitās f
• Persian: جلفی (fa) (jelfi)
• Portuguese: leveza (pt)
• Russian: несерьёзность (ru) f (neserʹjóznostʹ), легкомы́слие (ru) m (lexkomýslije), ветреность (ru) (vetrenostʹ)
• Welsh: ysgafnder m

lack of steadiness — see instability

state or quality of being light

• Armenian: թեթեւություն (hy) (tʻetʻewutʻyun)
• Czech: lehkost f
• Finnish: keveys (fi)
• French: légèreté (fr) f
• Persian: سبکی (fa) (saboki)
• Russian: лёгкость (ru) f (ljóxkostʹ)
• Spanish: frivolo m

lighthearted or frivolous act

• Armenian: թեթեւամտություն (hy) (tʻetʻewamtutʻyun), թեթեւսոլիկություն (hy) (tʻetʻewsolikutʻyun)
• Bulgarian: лекомислие (bg) n (lekomislie), вятърничавост (bg) f (vjatǎrničavost)
• Czech: lehkovážnost f, frivolnost f
• Dutch: luchthartigheid (nl), luchtig (nl)
• Finnish: kevytmielisyys (fi), päähänpisto (fi)
• French: frivolité (fr) f
• German: Leichtfertigkeit (de)
• Persian: سبک‌سری (sabok-sari)
• Portuguese: leviandade (pt)
• Russian: вольность (ru) f (volʹnostʹ)
• Spanish: frivolidad (es)