pleasance

Etymology

Old French plaisance.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈplɛzəns/

Noun

pleasance (plural pleasances)

1. (obsolete) Willingness to please, or the action of pleasing; courtesy. [14th-17th c.]
2. (obsolete) The feeling of being pleased; pleasure, delight. [14th-19th c.]
   • 1579, Edmund Spenser], The Shepheardes Calender, in Francis J Child (editor), The Poetical Works of Edmund Spenser, volume III, Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company 1855, OCLC 793557671, page 406, lines 222–228:

     Now stands the Brere like a lord alone, / Puffed up with pryde and vaine pleasaunce.

3. A pleasure ground laid out with shady walks, trees and shrubs, statuary, and ornamental water; a secluded part of a garden. [from 16th c.]

   The pleasances of old Elizabethan houses. — Ruskin.

   • 1924, EM Forster, A Passage to India, Penguin 2005, p. 6:

     It is a tropical pleasance, washed by a noble river.