JOLLY (from O. Fr. jolif; Fr. joli, the

See also:

• FRENCH
• FRENCH, DANIEL CHESTER (1850– )
• FRENCH, NICHOLAS (1604-1678)

French word is obscure in origin; it may be from

See also:

• LATE

late

See also:

• LAT

Lat. gaudivus, from gaudere, to rejoice, the

See also:

• CHANGE (derived through the Fr. from the Late Lat. cambium, cambiare, to barter; the ultimate derivation is probably from the root which appears in the Gr. «a urmu', to bend)

change of d to 1 being paralleled by cigada and cigale, or from O. Norse jol, Eng. "

See also:

• YULE
• YULE, SIR HENRY (182o-1889)

yule," the

See also:

• NORTHERN

northern festival of  midwinter), and adjective meaning gay, cheerful, jovial, high-spirited . The colloquial use of the term as an intensive adverb, meaning extremely, very, was in early usage quite literary; thus John Trapp (1601-1669), Commentaries on the New Testament, Matthew (1647), writes, " All was jolly quiet at Ephesus before St Paul came hither." In the royal navy " jolly " used as a substantive, is the slang name for a marine . To " jolly " is a slang synonym for " chaff." The word " jolly-boat," the name of a ship's small broad boat, usually clinker-built, is of doubtful etymology . It occurs in English in the iSth century, and is usually connected with Dan. or Swed. jolle, Dutch jol, a small ship's boat; these words are properly represented in English by " yawl " originally a ship's small boat, now chiefly used of a rig of sailing vessels, with a cutter-rigged foremast and a small mizzen stepped far aft, with a spanker sail (see RIGGING) . A connexion has been suggested with a word of much earlier appearance in English, jolywat, or gellywatte . This occurs at the end of the 15th century and is used of a smaller type of ship's boat . This is supposed to be a corruption of the French galiote or Dutch galjoot, galliot (see GALLEY) . The galliot was, however, a large vessel .