euphorious

English

Etymology

From euphoria +‎ -ous. According to The Century Dictionary, erroneously for *euphorous, from Ancient Greek εὔφορος (eúphoros) (whence euphoria via εὐφορίᾱ (euphoríā) – εὔφορος (eúphoros) + -ῐ́ᾱ (-íā)).

Adjective

euphorious (comparative more euphorious, superlative most euphorious)

1. Synonym of euphoric.
   • 1904, G[ranville] Stanley Hall, “Intellectual Development and Education”, in Adolescence: Its Psychology and Its Relations to Physiology, Anthropology, Sociology, Sex, Crime, Religion and Education, volume II, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton and Company, page 547:

     […] the conviction is borne in upon the soul, consciously, and perhaps more unconsciously, that there is something like good-will or beneficence at the root of things; that man is a favored, protected, and chosen being, whose supremacy in nature is not an accident; that there is a power that makes for his unfoldment and welfare as if it were interested in or friendly to him; and thus he feels more at home in the place nature has prepared for him and more disposed to trust that all that is beyond his ken is well; that real evil can not befall the good men, living or dead; and that he can afford to be glad and euphorious that he is alive.

   • 1939 May 4, James Joyce, Finnegans Wake, London: Faber and Faber Limited, →OCLC; republished London: Faber & Faber Limited, 1960, →OCLC, part II, page 353:

     butt (maomant scoffin, but apoxyomenously deturbaned but thems bleachin banes will be after making a bashman’s haloday out of the euphorious hagiohygiecynicism of his die and be diademmed).

   • 1988 November 27, “How Richard Gere Learned To Reach Out”, in Parade (The Spokesman-Review), page 10, column 3:

     How had it felt, at 28, to be the hottest young actor in town? He [Richard Gere] grinned. “It was great having the attention,” he said. “I thought: ‘This is it! I’ve done it! I’m going to retire my father. I’m putting money away for college for my sisters,’ the whole thing. It’s incredibly euphorious. All of a sudden the rehearsal period of your life is over, and your future has arrived. It’s liberating.”

   • 2012, Lucy March, “Acknowledgments”, in A Little Night Magic, St. Martin’s Paperbacks, published 2014, →ISBN, page 289:

     Writing it as I went through a devastating divorce and a simultaneously terrifying and euphorious life-reboot, I found it to be both trial and triumph, and now what’s left is this, a story about a woman whose life turned her upside down and shook her until her courage came out.

   • 2012, Cornelia Cotton, Stepping Stones: Stories, Hessian Hills Press, →ISBN, page 68:

     Once back home, in the euphorious state of liberation from the Nazi nightmare, of knowing myself free and safe, our house still standing even though much of Berlin was in ruins, and my immediate family having survived the horrors by luck, fate, and precaution, something resembling normal life was in the offing, and that, of course, meant school.

References

• “euphorious (ụ̄-fō´ri-us), a.”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC, page 446, column 2: “[Erroneously for *euphorous, < Gr. εὔφορος, bearing well, enduring easily or patiently, < εὖ, well, + φέρειν, bear.] Cheerful or patient in life.”