Usage Of "felicific"?

Share on Facebook

Konterkarator

#386665 Sun, 01 Jul 07 06:31 PM

Hello,

I've encountered the word "felicific". The dictionary says "relating to or promoting increased happiness". I think I get what it means, but I am still unsure about the usage. Could someone explain how to use it and post some example sentences?

Thanks.

Konterkarator

Joined on Sun, Jul 1 2007

New Member (08)

khoff

#386725 Sun, 01 Jul 07 09:54 PM

Don't worry about using this word -- it is very obscure. I have never seen it or heard it before, and I think that would be true for almost all native speakers.. A couple of related words are more common -- felicity, felicitous, felicitate -- but even these are very rarely used in ordinary conversation. As long as you know that they are all related to "happiness," you will understand them about as well as most native speakers do.

khoff

Joined on Sun, Mar 6 2005

Denver, Colorado, USA, Earth

Senior Member (2,569)

Native speaker of American English (but not a grammar expert)

Conversations

MrPedantic

#386773 Sun, 01 Jul 07 11:45 PM

"Felicific" would make a very good screen name.

The "felicific calculus" is a method of computing the quantity of pleasure that an action may cause. It was devised by Bentham.

(The felicific calculus of applying the felicific calculus is extremely low, in my experience.)

MrP

MrPedantic

Joined on Tue, Oct 12 2004

Veteran Member (12,052)

...opella forensis / adducit febris...

Konterkarator

#386951 Mon, 02 Jul 07 11:39 AM

Thanks for the replies.
Good to know that it's a word rarely used. However I am still interested in how to use it.
I found the following sentence in a dictionary: "The institution of a rule against murder is in general felicific."
I don't really get what it means but it looks like "to be in felicific" is some sort of expression. Is that right?