Exultant, barely-containable high spirits.
Exultant, barely-containable high spirits — often with a gloating or mischievous edge.
A passing, reactive burst felt “over” a specific event, more animated and outwardly expressive than happiness or contentment. Its signature is a frequent malicious or gloating edge (“maniacal glee,” “morbid glee”) — joy taken, often, in another's misfortune — which sets it apart from benign mirth. Also reads as childlike or impish (“dancing with glee”).
Old English gliu, gleow “entertainment, mirth (often with music); jest; also mockery,” from Proto-Germanic; probably from PIE *ghel- “to shine.” A poetry word, largely obsolete c. 1500–1700, revived in the late 18th century.
Old English senses included “music/entertainment” (surviving in glee club, 1814) and “mockery,” the latter foreshadowing the modern gloating edge. Revived late 1700s in the “high-spirited joy” sense now dominant. No sourced recent-generation shift.