agelast means one who never laughs (especially at jokes); a mirthless person. It carries an Arena rating of 1726, earned across 95 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, agelast ranks #719 of 17,151 for The Improbable, #989 of 17,132 for Most Betrayed by Its Sound, #1,805 of 17,104 for Most Storied Words, #2,842 of 17,138 for Most Incisive Words.
agelast is pronounced /ˈæd͡ʒəˌlæst/.
Why “agelast” is a great word
AGELAST — [Noun] A person who never laughs, especially one who does not laugh at jokes; a mirthless person. Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek ἀγέλαστος (agélastos, "not laughing"), from γελάω (geláō, "to laugh"). Attributed to a French coinage by François Rabelais (c. 1483–1553). Unlike a "stoic," who endures without complaint, or a "killjoy," who actively spoils mirth, the agelast is defined by a profound and passive deficit. He is the unmoved face in a roaring theatre, the granite bust at a comedian’s feet, the dry soil from which no flower of levity can grow—a living testament to the peculiar tragedy of a soul that hears the mechanism of the world but never its music.
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek ἀγέλαστος (agélastos, “not laughing”), from γελάω (geláō, “to laugh”). Attributed to a French coinage by François Rabelais (ca.1483–1494—1553).
noun
- One who never laughs (especially at jokes); a mirthless person.e.g.“As a real agelast in a comedy, he is beaten. The beating of an agelast is the most important point of the comedy.” — 2005, Arkady Kovelman, Between Alexandria and Jerusalem: The Dynamic of Jewish and Hellenistic Culture, Koninklijke Brill, page 50:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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