Meaning: Very happy or delighted
While this is a well-known phrase, we don’t find ourselves using ‘over the moon’ much these days.
You would perhaps be surprised to know that this expression comes from a 16th-century nursery rhyme called 'Hey Diddle Diddle' (originally written as 'High Diddle Diddle'). In its current sense, the phrase is believed to have originated in Ireland as most of its early uses are found in texts by Irish authors. The first recorded use of the phrase was as "to jump over the moon" in a comedy by the Irish playwright Charles Molloy (1690-1767) named The Coquet: Or, The English Chevalier in 1718.
Example Sentence: “My little kid was over the moon when he got his new basketball.”
2. Chirky
Meaning: To ‘chirk up’ means to cheer up and chirky means being cheerful.
It comes from the Middle English word charken which means "to creak or chirp" and from the Old English cearcian, meaning "to chatter or creak". It is similar to the Old English word cracian, meaning "to crack". The first known use of chirk was in 1843, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary.
Example Sentence: “But--" "Well, I think," said Mis' Jane Moran, "that we've hit on the only way we could have hit on to chirk each other up over a hard time." – From ‘Christmas’ (1912) by Zona Gale
The word 'kvell' was derived from the Yiddish word kveln, which means "to be delighted”. Kveln, in turn, comes from the Middle High German word quellen, which means "to well, gush, or swell." It isn’t clear exactly when did kvell make its first appearance in the English language and when did it start getting used commonly. But the Merriam-Webster dictionary says that one of the first instances of the word being used in an English source was in a 1952 handbook of Jewish words and expressions.
Example Sentence: “If my mother could see my work today, she’d be kvelling.”
Meaning: (of an atmosphere) friendly and lively; agreeable
(of a person) cheerful and jovial
Convivial’s origins can be traced back to convivium a Late Latin word meaning "banquet” or a “feast”. It meant to imply a festive or cheerful atmosphere and is also used to describe a jovial person.
In his novel 'David Copperfield', Charles Dickens captures the essence of the word quite perfectly: “We had a beautiful little dinner. Quite an elegant dish of fish; the kidney-end of a loin of veal, roasted; fried sausage-meat; a partridge, and a pudding. There was wine, and there was strong ale.... Mr. Micawber was uncommonly convivial. I never saw him such good company. He made his face shine with the punch, so that it looked as if it had been varnished all over. He got cheerfully sentimental about the town, and proposed success to it."
Example Sentence: “After an extremely convivial weekend, he didn’t feel like going to work that Monday”.
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