1 agelast | Definition of agelast

agelast

noun
ag·​e·​last | \ ˈa-jə-ˌlast How to pronounce agelast (audio) \
plural agelasts

Definition of agelast

: a person who never laughs And in the Essay on Comedy he did at least remind us that in scholarship and in literature, or indeed in any of the circumstances of our mortal careers, the final word should not be with the agelast, the one who never laughs.— Richard Franko Goldman, American Scholar, Winter 1966–67

First Known Use of agelast

1877, in the meaning defined above

History and Etymology for agelast

borrowed from Middle French agelaste (Rabelais), borrowed from Greek agélastos “not laughing, grave, gloomy,” from a- a- entry 2 + gelastós, verbal adjective of gelân “to laugh”

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