agelast

noun

ag·​e·​last ˈa-jə-ˌlast 

plural agelasts

: a person who never laughs

And in the Essay on Comedy he did at least remind us that in scholarship and in literature, or indeed in any of the circumstances of our mortal careers, the final word should not be with the agelast, the one who never laughs.

—Richard Franko Goldman, American Scholar, Winter 1966–67

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from Middle French agelaste (Rabelais), borrowed from Greek agélastos "not laughing, grave, gloomy," from a- a- entry 2 + gelastós, verbal adjective of gelân "to laugh"

First Known Use

1877, in the meaning defined above

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