jo·vi·al  (j ōv ē- əl)
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adj. Marked by hearty conviviality and good cheer: a jovial host.
[French, from Middle French, under the favorable astrological influence of the planet Jupiter, jovial, from Old Italian, from Late Latin Ioviālis, of Jupiter, from Latin Iuppiter, Iov-, Jupiter; see dyeu- in the Appendix of Indo-European roots.]
jo′vi·ali·ty (-ălĭ-tē) n. jovi·al·ly adv. |
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2020 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices
Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:
Indo-European Roots
Semitic Roots
The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.
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