English

Proper noun

Laetitia

1. (Roman mythology) The goddess of gaiety.
2. (astronomy) Short for 39 Laetitia, a main belt asteroid.
3. A female given name, a Latinate spelling of Letitia.

Translations

French

Proper noun

Laetitia

1. A female given name, cognate to Letitia, popular in the 1980s.

Latin

Noun

laetitia f ‎(genitive laetitiae); first declension

1. great joy, gladness, pleasure, delight
   • Plautus, Poenulus 5.4.114-116 (c. 190 BC):

     Di deaeque omnes, vobis habeo merito magnas gratias, quom hac me laetitia adfecistis tanta et tantis gaudiis, ut meae gnatae ad me redirent in potestatem meam.‎

     Gods and Goddesses all! I return you deservedly extreme thanks, for having blest me with this gladness so supreme and with these joys so great; as my daughters have returned to me and into my possession.

   • Gellius, Noctes Atticae 2.27.3 (c. 175 AD):

     Nonne ultra naturae humanae modum est, dehonestamento corporis laetari? Siquidem laetitia dicitur exultatio quaedam animi gaudio efferventior eventu rerum expetitarum.‎

     Is it not beyond the range of human capability to rejoice in bodily disfigurement? For joy is a certain exaltation of spirit, delighting in the realization of something greatly desired.

   • Beda Venerabilis, Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum 1.31 (c. 730 AD):

     Veritatis etenim discipulis esse gaudium non debet, nisi de eo bono, quod commune cum omnibus habent, et in quo finem laetitiae non habent.‎

     For these who are disciples of the truth ought not to rejoice, save for that good thing which all men enjoy as well as they, and of which their enjoyment shall be without end.

Inflection

First declension.

Related terms

• laeto

Descendants

• French: liesse
• Italian: letizia
• Old Portuguese: lediça
  • Portuguese: lediça, ledice, letícia, Lediça, Letícia

References

• laetitia in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• laetitia in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• Félix Gaffiot (1934), “laetitia”, in Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Paris: Hachette.
• Meissner, Carl; Auden, Henry William (1894) Latin Phrase-Book, London: Macmillan and Co.
  • to give pleasure to some one: afficere aliquem gaudio, laetitia
    
  • to give pleasure to some one: afferre alicui laetitiam
    
  • to take pleasure in a thing: laetitiam capere or percipere ex aliqua re
    
  • to utter cries of joy: gaudio, laetitia exsultare
    
  • to be transported with joy: laetitia gestire (Tusc. 4. 6. 13)
    
  • a transport of joy: effusa laetitia
    
  • a transport of joy: laetitia gestiens
    
  • to be beside oneself with joy: gaudio, laetitia efferri
    
  • to put a man in a pleasurable frame of mind: animum alicuius ad laetitiam excitare