Noun

(en noun)

The emotion usually following humour and accompanied by laughter; merriment; jollity; gaiety.

* 1883 ,

And he began to laugh again, and that so heartily, that, though I did not see the joke as he did, I was again obliged to join him in his mirth.

*, title=The Mirror and the Lamp

, chapter=2 citation , passage=She was a fat, round little woman, richly apparelled in velvet and lace, […]; and the way she laughed, cackling like a hen, the way she talked to the waiters and the maid, […]—all these unexpected phenomena impelled one to hysterical mirth , and made one class her with such immortally ludicrous types as Ally Sloper, the Widow Twankey, or Miss Moucher.}}

* 1912 , :

Their eyes met and they began to laugh. They laughed as children do when they cannot contain themselves, and can not explain the cause of their mirth to grown people, but share it perfectly together.

That which causes merriment.

* 1922 ,

Phantasmal mirth , folded away: muskperfumed.

Noun

(-)

(chiefly, Scotland)

* {{quote-book, year=1857, author=S. H. Hammond, title=Wild Northern Scenes, chapter=, edition= citation

, passage=I've hearn some folks pretend that it comes from the bowels of the airth , but it don't; its a thing of the air, and I've a notion it travels a mighty long way from its startin' place afore it reaches us. " }}

* {{quote-book, year=1889, author=Annie Trumbull Slosson, title=Fishin' Jimmy, chapter=, edition= citation

, passage="As I was tellin' ye," he said, "I allers loved fishin' an' knowed 't was the best thing in the hull airth . }}

* {{quote-book, year=1901, author=Henry van Dyke, title=The Ruling Passion, chapter=, edition= citation

, passage=I guess there ain't nothin' on airth he loves better 'n that holler piece o' wood, and the toons that's inside o' it. }}