To feel or show great joy, happiness, or triumph about something. Often used in religious or celebratory contexts to express deep gladness.
From Old French rejoir, meaning 'to make joyful again,' composed of re- (again) and joir (to enjoy), from Latin gaudere (to rejoice). The prefix suggests joy returning or being renewed after absence.
The 're-' in rejoice suggests that joy is our natural state, and we're simply returning to it - a beautifully optimistic linguistic assumption that happiness is not something we achieve but something we recover.
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