- 1
Mirth is the warm, laughing kind of happiness — the feeling in a room when people are and their faces are open. It is not a quiet joy you keep inside. It wants a laugh, even a small one, even only in the eyes. The word sounds a little old now. People still use it, but more in writing, in Christmas language (“mirth and good cheer”), and when they want a softer, older feel than fun or laughter. You can speak of one person’s mirth, or of the mirth of a whole table. Though actually, if there is no laugh in it at all, mirth is probably the wrong word; plain happiness would do better.
歡笑、歡樂（偏書面；指笑出來的那種高興，不是泛泛的「開心」）
組成merry + -th, the old ending that turns a describing word into a noun for the quality. From Old English myrgþ (“mirth, joy”). Scholars trace that further to an older Germanic word for briefness; Middle Dutch had merchte, “pleasure, joy.”
原始詞典資料2 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。
mirthnoun/mɜɹθ/
- 1
The emotion usually following humor and accompanied by laughter.
- But sorrow that is couch'd in seeming gladness Is like that mirth fate turns to sudden sadness.
- To this speech Bingley made no answer; but his sisters gave it their hearty assent, and indulged their mirth for some time at the expense of their dear friend's vulgar relations.
- 2
That which causes merriment.
- Phantasmal mirth, folded away: muskperfumed.
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。