felicity

Etymology

Borrowed from Old French felicite, from Latin felicitās (“luck”), from felix (“lucky”).

Noun

felicity (uncountable)

1. Happiness.
   • 1814 July, [Jane Austen], chapter I, in Mansfield Park: A Novel. In Three Volumes, volume I, London: Printed for T[homas] Egerton, Military Library, Whitehall, OCLC 39810224, page 2:

     […] Mr. and Mrs. Norris began their career of conjugal felicity with very little less than a thousand a year.

   • 1862, George Long, translation of Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book V:

     For two reasons then it is right to be content with that which happens to thee; the one, because it was done for thee and prescribed for thee, and in a manner had reference to thee, originally from the most ancient causes spun with thy destiny; and the other, because even that which comes severally to every man is to the power which administers the universe a cause of felicity and perfection, nay even of its very continuance.

2. Apt and pleasing style in writing, speech, etc.
3. Something that is either a source of happiness or particularly apt.
4. (semiotics, semiology) Reproduction of a sign with fidelity.

   The quotation was rendered with felicity.

   • 2007 August 7, Joshua Ferris, “Table for two”, in New York Times‎:

     The season’s main attraction, the felicities of the sun, dimmed in the light of our competition and our growing friendliness.