levity

Definition

A lightness of manner or speech, frivolity; flippancy; a lack of appropriate seriousness; an inclination to make a joke of serious matters.

Etymology

Coined in 1564, from Latin levitās (“lightness, frivolity”), from levis (“lightness (in weight)”). Cognate to lever, and more distantly, light.

Example Sentences

• "Most of the confidences were unsought - frequently I have feigned sleep, preoccupation or a hostile levity […]"
• "[…]it would really seem as if there was something nomadic in our natures, a principle of levity and restlessness […]"
• "Hydrogen […] rises in the air on account of its levity."