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Levity
noun
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A lightness of manner or speech, frivolity; flippancy; a lack of appropriate seriousness; an inclination to make a joke of serious matters. uncountable, usually
- 2 a manner lacking seriousness wordnet
- 3 A lack of steadiness. obsolete, uncountable, usually
- 4 feeling an inappropriate lack of seriousness wordnet
- 5 The state or quality of being light, buoyancy. uncountable, usually
"Most of the confidences were unsought - frequently I have feigned sleep, preoccupation or a hostile levity […]"
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- 6 A lighthearted or frivolous act. countable, usually
"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."
Etymology
Coined in 1564, from Latin levitās (“lightness, frivolity”), from levis (“lightness (in weight)”). Cognate to lever, and more distantly, light.
See also for "levity"
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