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In my view, the Christian religion is the most important and one of the first things in which all children, under a free government ought to be instructed... No truth is more evident to my mind than that the Christian religion must be the basis of any government intended to secure the rights and privileges of a free people.
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1828 Noah Webster Dictionary
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1828.mshaffer.com › Word [levity]

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levity

LEV'ITY, n. [L. levitas, from levis, light; connected perhaps with Eng. lift.]

1. Lightness; the want of weight in a body, compared with another that is heavier. The ascent of a balloon in the air is owing to its levity, as the gas that fills it is lighter than common air.

2. Lightness of temper or conduct; inconstancy; changeableness; unsteadiness; as the levity of youth.

3. Want of due consideration; vanity; freak. He never employed his omnipotence out of levity or ostentation.

4. Gaiety of mind; want of seriousness; disposition to trifle. The spirit of religion and seriousness was succeeded by levity.


Evolution (or devolution) of this word [levity]

1828 Webster1844 Webster1913 Webster

LEV'ITY, n. [L. levitas, from levis, light; connected perhaps with Eng. lift.]

1. Lightness; the want of weight in a body, compared with another that is heavier. The ascent of a balloon in the air is owing to its levity, as the gas that fills it is lighter than common air.

2. Lightness of temper or conduct; inconstancy; changeableness; unsteadiness; as the levity of youth.

3. Want of due consideration; vanity; freak. He never employed his omnipotence out of levity or ostentation.

4. Gaiety of mind; want of seriousness; disposition to trifle. The spirit of religion and seriousness was succeeded by levity.

LEV'I-TY, n. [L. levitas, from levis, light; connected perhaps with Eng. lift.]

  1. Lightness; the want of weight in a body, compared with another that is heavier. The ascent of a balloon in the air is owing to its levity, as the gas that fills it is lighter than common air.
  2. Lightness of temper or conduct; inconstancy; changeableness; unsteadiness; as, the levity of youth. – Hooker.
  3. Want of due consideration; vanity; freak. He never employed his omnipotence out of levity or ostentation.
  4. Gayety of mind want of seriousness; disposition to trifle. The spirit of religion and seriousness was succeeded by levity.

Lev"i*ty
  1. The quality of weighing less than something else of equal bulk; relative lightness, especially as shown by rising through, or floating upon, a contiguous substance; buoyancy; -- opposed to gravity.

    He gave the form of levity to that which ascended; to that which descended, the form of gravity. Sir. W. Raleigh.

    This bubble by reason of its comparative levity to the fluidity that incloses it, would ascend to the top. Bentley.

  2. Lack of gravity and earnestness in deportment or character; trifling gayety; frivolity; sportiveness; vanity.

    " A spirit of levity and libertinism." Atterbury.

    He never employed his omnipotence out of levity. Calamy.

  3. Lack of steadiness or constancy; disposition to change; fickleness; volatility.

    The levity that is fatigued and disgusted with everything of which it is in possession. Burke.

    Syn. -- Inconstancy; thoughtlessness; unsteadiness; inconsideration; volatility; flightiness. -- Levity, Volatility, Flightiness. All these words relate to outward conduct. Levity springs from a lightness of mind which produces a disregard of the proprieties of time and place.Volatility is a degree of levity which causes the thoughts to fly from one object to another, without resting on any for a moment. Flightiness is volatility carried to an extreme which often betrays its subject into gross impropriety or weakness. Levity of deportment, of conduct, of remark; volatility of temper, of spirits; flightiness of mind or disposition.

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Levity

LEV'ITY, noun [Latin levitas, from levis, light; connected perhaps with Eng. lift.]

1. Lightness; the want of weight in a body, compared with another that is heavier. The ascent of a balloon in the air is owing to its levity as the gas that fills it is lighter than common air.

2. Lightness of temper or conduct; inconstancy; changeableness; unsteadiness; as the levity of youth.

3. Want of due consideration; vanity; freak. He never employed his omnipotence out of levity or ostentation.

4. Gaiety of mind; want of seriousness; disposition to trifle. The spirit of religion and seriousness was succeeded by levity

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Word of the Day

importance

IMPORT'ANCE, n.

1. Weight; consequence; a bearing on some interest; that quality of any thing by which it may affect a measure, interest or result. The education of youth is of great importance to a free government. A religious education is of infinite importance to every human being.

2. Weight or consequence in the scale of being.

Thy own importance know.

Nor bound thy narrow views to things below.

3. Weight or consequence in self-estimation.

He believes himself a man of importance.

4. Thing implied; matter; subject; importunity. [In these senses, obsolete.]

Random Word

inefficaciousness

INEFFICA'CIOUSNESS, n. Want of power to produce the effect, or want of effect.

Noah's 1828 Dictionary

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