[ad. F. jovialité (1624 in Hatz.-Darm.), f. jovial: see -ITY.] The quality of being jovial; hearty mirth, humor or good-fellowship; jollity, festivity, conviviality.
1626. Bernard, Isle of Man (1627), 67. Where Iovialitie taketh his place, there joy will bid him welcome.
1788. H. Walpole, Remin., i. 13. His majesty, fond of private joviality.
1846. Wright, Ess. Mid. Ages, I. v. 183. A description of the jovialities of an English drinking party of the twelfth century.
1887. Miss Braddon, Like & Unlike, I. i. 25. Joviality was the fashionable physician’s particular line; and a case must be bad indeed in which he would not venture to be jovial.
