English

Noun

joyhood ‎(uncountable)

1. (rare, nonstandard) The quality, condition, or state of joy.
   • 1853, Edward HIND, Spencer Timothy Hall, Poems:

     Green grove of Clifton! though vanished our boyhood, We'll visit your glade in some fair eve of June; Yet lingers the spirit which brightened life's joyhood, [...]

   • 1898, John Worth Edmonds, George T. Dexter, Spiritualism:

     Previous to his beginning to speak, the whole of that great crowd of spirits was moving about, talking, laughing, etc., but while he spoke there was a holy calm, a perfect silence resting on the scene. Joyhood ceased its laugh, the brook staid its murmur, [...]

   • 1911, Folger McKinsey, Songs of the Daily Life:

     Symptom five — just like the others: Oh, it's fishing time, my brothers, When the fever, all a-sudden, Makes us think of lilacs buddin', And the heart turns back to boyhood With its honeyed days of joyhood!

   • 1919, Locomotive Engineers Journal:

     Fret not. old pal, when you are sore At things which rob you of your joyhood.

Related terms

• joyness