jolly

Meaning

Adj

1. Full of merriment and high spirits; jovial; joyous; merry.
2. (colloquial, dated) Splendid, excellent, pleasant.
3. (informal) Drunk.

Noun

1. (UK, dated, humorous, often) A pleasure trip or excursion.
2. (dated, slang) A marine in the English navy.
3. (archaic, slang) A word of praise, or favorable notice.
4. (abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis) Ellipsis of jolly boat.

Adv

Very, extremely.

Verb

1. (transitive) To amuse or divert.
2. (archaic, informal, transitive) To praise or talk up.

Synonyms

merry

cheerful

jovial

gay

happy

😀

joyful

kid

🧒

joyous

jocund

tease

hilarious

jolly boat

glad

very

gleeful

pretty

mirthful

banter

lively

make fun of

chaff

josh

convivial

passably

blithe

enjoyable

reasonably

bright

somewhat

slightly tight

delighted

boon

middling

frolicsome

lighthearted

cheery

festive

jubilant

fairly

extremely

amusing

exhilarated

moderately

excellent

ever so

chafe

enliven

buxom

energize

energise

Translations

joyeux

gai

jovial

jovial

allegro

neşeli

χαρούμενος

lustig

😄

εύθυμος

vrolijk

gaio

regocijado

alegre

şen

😀

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈd͡ʒɒli/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: joli

Cognate with Dutch: jolig

Cognate with Western Frisian: joelich

Cognate with Middle High German: jœlich

In summary

From Middle English joli, jolif (“merry, cheerful”), from Old French joli, jolif (“merry, joyful”). For the loss of final -f in English, compare tardy, hasty, hussy, etc.
It is uncertain whether the Old French word is from Old Norse jól ("a midwinter feast, Yule", hence "fest-ive"), in which case, equivalent to yule + -ive, compare Dutch jolig (“happy, festive, frolicsome, jolly”), West Frisian joelich, joalich (“merry, jolly”), Middle High German jœlich (“hooting, jubilant”). Alternatively, the Old French adjective has been conjectured to derive from a Vulgar Latin *gaudivus (from Latin gaudeō, more at joy), in which case it would require Early Old French ⟨d⟩ /ð/ to irregularly become ⟨l⟩ in jolif rather than being dropped, which is the usual case (alternatively, /l/ may be a hiatus filler inserted into expected *joïf). A possible parallel of ⟨d⟩ to ⟨l⟩ can be seen in the French name Valois, according to one hypothesis from Latin Vadensis, though this origin is itself uncertain and disputed.

Sentences

He was such a jolly old bloke .