21 June 2014

felicity

[fi-lis-i-tee]

noun, plural fe·lic·i·ties.

1. the state of being happy, especially in a high degree; bliss: marital felicity.
2. an instance of this.
3. a source of happiness.
4. a skillful faculty: felicity of expression.
5. an instance or display of this: the many felicities of the poem.

Origin:
1350–1400; Middle English felicite (< Anglo-French ) < Latin fēlīcitās, equivalent to fēlīci- (stem of fēlīx ) happy + -tās -ty2

Related forms
non·fe·lic·i·ty, noun

Synonyms
1. See happiness.

Fe·lic·i·ty [fi-lis-i-tee]
noun
a female given name, form of Felicia.
Also, Fe·lic·i·ta [fi-lis-i-tuh]

Anagram

city life
ice fitly
I felt icy

Today’s aphorism

Education is simply the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to another.

– Gilbert K. Chesterton

On this day

21 June 1953 – birth of Benazir Bhutto, elected Prime Minister of Pakistan in 1988, becoming the first female leader of a Muslim country. She was dismissed as Prime Minister in 1996 amid accusations of corruption. She went into exile, living in the United Arab Emirates. In 2007, against the orders of President Musharraf, she returned to Pakistan to contest the 2008 election. She was assassinated at a rally on 27 December 2007.

21 June 1964 – Three civil rights activists (James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner) disappear in Mississippi while investigating an allegation that the Ku Klux Klan had burned down an African-American church. Their bodies were discovered six weeks later. In 1966, seven Ku Klux Klan members were found guilty of the murders, while eight others were found not guilty, including Edgar Ray ‘Preacher’ Killen who was retried in 2005 and found guilty.

21 June 2001 – death of John Lee Hooker, American blues guitarist.

21 June 2005 – Edgar Ray ‘Preacher’ Killen, former Ku Klux Klansman, is found guilty of manslaughter for his part in the 1964 killing of three civil rights activists and sentenced to 60 years imprisonment.