A strong but quiet and temperate joy, usually arising from a specific cause and showing chiefly in the face..
A strong but quiet and temperate joy, usually arising from a specific cause and showing chiefly in the face.
Occupies the mild, calm middle: strong but tranquil, and typically a reaction to good news, relief, or reunion rather than a diffuse state — far less demonstrative than joy. Distinctively wholesome: unlike joy, pleasure, or delight, gladness does not take a malign sense (no “gladness” at another's downfall). The adjective “glad” is everyday, but the noun “gladness” now sounds formal or Biblical.
Old English glædnes “joy; good nature,” from glæd (glad) + -ness. Glad traces to PIE *ghel- “to shine”; the original notion was “bright, radiant with joy.”
The adjective glad weakened from “bright/radiant” to “feeling pleasure.” The noun has meant “joy” since Old English but is now comparatively rare and literary, while “glad” thrives in speech — a register shift, not a semantic one. No recent-generation shift is sourced.