"Somehow I can't believe that there are any heights that can't be scaled by a man who knows the secrets of making dreams come true. This special secret, it seems to me, can be summarized in four C s. They are curiosity, confidence, courage, and constancy, and the greatest of all is confidence. When you believe in a thing, believe in it all the way, implicitly and unquestionable."
-- Walt Disney

Two qualities are indispensable: first, an intellect that, even in the darkest hour, retains some glimmerings of the inner light which leads to truth; and second, the courage to follow this faint light wherever it may lead.
- Carl von Clausewitz

You've been through losing, surviving, healing and growing.....
It's now time for Celebrating.
~Author Unknown

The human heart needs a place to dream.
~ Flavia Weedn

It is a great shock at the age of five or six to find that in a world of Gary Coopers you are the Indian.

~James Baldwin

A comment on severe winter weather conditions in America's heartland:

"This is a good day to spend in bed with a good book -- or with someone who may have read one."

As we are shoveling, there Jerry is in Hawaii!

I wish you to know that you have been the last dream of my soul. In my degradation I have not been so degraded but that the sight of you with your father, and of this home made such a home by you, has stirred old shadows that I thought had died out of me. Since I knew you, I have been troubled by a remorse that I thought would never reproach me again, and have heard whispers from old voices impelling me upward, that I thought were silent for ever. I have had unformed ideas of striving afresh, beginning anew, shaking off sloth and sensuality, and fighting out the abandoned fight. A dream, all a dream, that ends in nothing, and leaves the sleeper where he lay down, but I wish you to know that you inspired it."
~Charles Dickens

agelast - someone who never laughs; "unfortunates without any option but to look on the universe realistically." -Davis Grubb

My logophile friend found this word in our dictionary and thinks there may be more to it. He tried looking for words with similar roots and found the following: Epilepsy Ontario - gelastic - [ Traduzca esta página ]... Gelastic Seizures. Gelastic seizures are brief outbursts of emotion, usually in the form of a laugh or a cry. ... Gelastic seizures usually last 5 to 60 seconds. ...."

Does anyone know any more? I found it in 4 dictionaries in onelook, but none with etymology.

The AWAD archives show the following:

quote:

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agelast (AJ-uh-last) noun

Someone who never laughs.

[From Greek agelastos (not laughing), ultimately from gelaein (to laugh).]

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Thanks, arnie. Interesting how that evolved into Gelastic seizures. I hadn't heard of "agelast," though that means absolutely nothing! Has anyone else? I would think it could be a useful word, though "never" may be a problem. I know people who rarely laugh...but never laugh?

Well, it only appears in those online dictionaries that specialise in uncommon and rare words, like Mrs. Byrne's Dictionary and tsuwm's Worthless Word for the Day.

It has all the hallmarks of an inkhorn word.

For what it's worth, agelastos is not an uncommon word in Greek, both ancient and modern.

quote:

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Originally posted by jheem:
For what it's worth, _agelastos_ is not an uncommon word in Greek, both ancient and modern.

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Does this word explain Bill Cosby's old Jello commercials? A day without gelatin is an agelastic day! No fun at all!