- 1
Levity is a light, joking way of talking when the moment is serious, and other people hear it as a lack of respect. Jokes at a funeral, or laughter in a hard meeting, are levity. Teachers and news writers use the word; it is somewhat formal, not street slang. Though actually older books sometimes used levity for any happy, light mood, with less blame in it. Today, if a grown-up names your levity, they usually want you to stop. It is about how you treat a serious thing. It is not about floating in the air, even though it shares an old root with words for “light” as in not heavy.
輕佻、把正經事當玩笑
組成Coined in 1564, from Latin levitās (“lightness, frivolity”), from levis (“light in weight”). Cognate to lever, and more distantly to light (not heavy).
同家族的字
- levitatesame Latin levis, “light”
- levitationsame Latin levis, “lightness”
- levercognate: same “light / lift” root
- lighta more distant cognate, as in not heavy
原始詞典資料4 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
levitynoun/ˈlɛ.vɪ.ti/
- 1
A lightness of manner or speech, frivolity; flippancy; a lack of appropriate seriousness; an inclination to make a joke of serious matters.
- An attempt to inject a little levity into the proceedings.
- 2
obsoleteA lack of steadiness.
- 3
The state or quality of being light, buoyancy.
- Most of the confidences were unsought - frequently I have feigned sleep, preoccupation or a hostile levity […]
- […]it would really seem as if there was something nomadic in our natures, a principle of levity and restlessness […]
- 4
A lighthearted or frivolous act.
- For though it be something wonderful to tell that any should have hearts so hardened, in the midst of such a calamity, as to rob and steal, yet certain it is that all sorts of villainies, and even levities and debaucheries, were then practiced in the town as openly as ever: I will not say quite as frequently, because the number of people were many ways lessened.
- […] or do the people joy less than common in their levities?"
資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。