Joy

Joy is a single bright syllable, direct as a struck bell. It comes from the Old French joie, itself from the Latin gaudium, meaning delight or gladness, and it entered English naming tradition among the Puritans, who favored virtue-names like Mercy, Hope, and Patience. Currently at rank 442, Joy has hovered quietly in the mid-ranks for decades, never fashionable enough to date, never obscure enough to explain. C. S. Lewis memorably loved a Joy. Joy Harjo wears it into contemporary American poetry. The sound is simple, the meaning transparent, the effect surprisingly hard to improve upon. A word for a feeling, given to a child.