
Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Alacrity refers to a quick and cheerful readiness to do something.
// She accepted the invitation to go on the trip with an alacrity that surprised her parents, who had assumed she wouldn’t be interested.
See the entry >
“Antipater, about to mount his horse, saw Pollio and Sameas so close to him that the sleeve of Sameas almost touched his own in the crush. … Antipater had graciously invited the two to view his new grandson and sip a cup of wine cooled by snow brought from Mount Hermon. The two accepted with alacrity.” — Zora Neale Hurston, The Life of Herod the Great, 2025
“I have not that alacrity of spirit / Nor cheer of mind that I was wont to have,” says William Shakespeare’s King Richard III in the play that bears his name. Alas and alack, Richard! Alacrity comes from the Latin word alacer, meaning “lively” or “eager,” and suggests physical quickness coupled with eagerness or enthusiasm. Thus, a spirit that lacks alacrity—like Richard III’s—is in the doldrums, in need of a little (to use a much less formal word than alacrity) get-up-and-go.
4.5
11891,189 ratings
Alacrity refers to a quick and cheerful readiness to do something.
// She accepted the invitation to go on the trip with an alacrity that surprised her parents, who had assumed she wouldn’t be interested.
See the entry >
“Antipater, about to mount his horse, saw Pollio and Sameas so close to him that the sleeve of Sameas almost touched his own in the crush. … Antipater had graciously invited the two to view his new grandson and sip a cup of wine cooled by snow brought from Mount Hermon. The two accepted with alacrity.” — Zora Neale Hurston, The Life of Herod the Great, 2025
“I have not that alacrity of spirit / Nor cheer of mind that I was wont to have,” says William Shakespeare’s King Richard III in the play that bears his name. Alas and alack, Richard! Alacrity comes from the Latin word alacer, meaning “lively” or “eager,” and suggests physical quickness coupled with eagerness or enthusiasm. Thus, a spirit that lacks alacrity—like Richard III’s—is in the doldrums, in need of a little (to use a much less formal word than alacrity) get-up-and-go.
2,544 Listeners
11,107 Listeners
2,830 Listeners
1,369 Listeners
1,081 Listeners
872 Listeners
513 Listeners
2,274 Listeners
831 Listeners
426 Listeners
411 Listeners
581 Listeners
575 Listeners
145 Listeners
79 Listeners