Revelour

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A person who takes part in festivities, merrymaking or lively celebration with great enthusiasm
2. Someone who indulges in noisy, joyful festivity and pleasure, especially at parties or feasts
3. A carefree participant in merrymaking, often one who enjoys drinking, dancing and boisterous fun

Etymology: The word once carried a sense of defiance. Its root is Old French "reveler," which meant both to rebel and to make a noisy disturbance, and it descends from Latin "rebellare," "to rebel." Medieval English borrowed the verb as "revel," and in English the sense of rebellion faded while the notion of boisterous, unruly merrymaking took over. The shift from rebelling against authority to rejoicing at a feast happened within the French and English uses rather than through a separate coinage. The agent form took the suffix "-er," which English had long used for people who do a thing. Middle English spellings often ended in "-our," following the Anglo-Norman spelling habits of the period, so this older form of "reveler" shows the French influence in its very spelling. Its exact first attestation is uncertain, but it belongs to the same wave of medieval vocabulary that gave English "revel" and its relatives.