pleasant

PLEZ-uhnt/ˈplɛzn̩t/

3 meanings of pleasant

1
adjective
Giving a feeling of enjoyment or satisfaction; agreeable in manner or character.
She has a pleasant manner that puts new clients at ease.
The dinner turned out far more pleasant than the awkward start had promised.
Similaragreeable, enjoyable, nice, delightful, friendly
Oppositeunpleasant, disagreeable, nasty
Note
Through Old French plaisant, the word comes from the present participle of please, so what is pleasant is, at root, what is pleasing. It partly displaced Old English wynsum, which survives as winsome. Both comparative patterns are correct: more pleasant or pleasanter, most pleasant or pleasantest. Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice (1813) has the country being "a vast deal pleasanter" than London.
2
adjectiveobsolete
Joking or jesting; treating a matter with humor rather than seriousness.
Note
A jesting meaning, now obsolete, in which the word leaned toward mischief rather than kindness. Shakespeare's "pleasant prince" in Henry V, written in 1599, is the one playing a joke ("this mock of his"). Thomas Dekker's The Shoemaker's Holiday (1600) pairs "mirth and pleasant matter." Keep this in mind when reading older texts. In your own writing, use joking or facetious, since readers will hear only the everyday agreeable meaning.
3
nounobsolete
A person known for wit and joking; a jester or buffoon.
The court pleasant could turn even the king's foul mood into laughter.
A noted pleasant of the tavern, he never let a quiet moment pass without a joke.
Note
The adjective became a noun for the person who supplies the jest, with the plural pleasants. It keeps low company. Philemon Holland's 1603 translation of the Morals sets "buffons or pleasants" side by side, and The General History of the Quakers (1696) lists the "Fools, and Pleasants" kept in royal courts. Like the joking adjective, it is obsolete; today jester or wit does the job.

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Origin

From Middle English "plesaunte," borrowed from Old French "plaisant," the present participle of "please." It is related to Dutch "plezant" ("full of fun or pleasure") and partly replaced the Old English word "wynsum," which became Modern English "winsome."