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illustration Agelast

Agelast

[A-jə-last]

Part of speech: noun

Origin: Greek, late 19th century

1.

A person who does not laugh

2.

Someone with no sense of humor

Examples of Agelast in a sentence

"The audience couldn’t contain their laughter, except for one agelast in the front row."

"Don’t crack jokes and get on the bad side of your agelast of a teacher. "

About Agelast

Agelast is one of a few words that comes from the Greek root geláō, meaning to laugh. A- is the prefix meaning “not,” which removes all the humor from agelast. Gelastic is something laughter provoking, so agelastic is naturally unfunny. Then there’s a hypergelast, or someone who laughs excessively.

Did you Know?

Agelast is heard more commonly in British English than in American, but that doesn’t mean the Brits are stuffy. You might use agelast to refer to Queen Elizabeth and her formal attitude, but then you could counter that with the gelastic comedy of Monty Python.

illustration Agelast

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