Roistering

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To indulge in noisy festivities that include cheerful shouting or laughter, often featuring raucous celebrations and merrymaking
2. To partake in exuberant gatherings marked by rowdiness, loud laughter, and joyful revelry
3. Taking part in boisterous and jubilant social events filled with loud cheers and high spirits

Etymology: "Roistering" is the present participle of "roister," and the verb's history is a surprising one: it traces back to the rustic countryman. Old French "rustre" meant a boor or peasant, a person of coarse, uncouth manners, and it came from Latin "rusticus," meaning "of the country." English took the same Latin root twice, once through French as "roister" and once directly as "rustic," which makes the two words doublets. The sense of the Old French noun carried a note of rough, unrefined behaviour, and that flavour survives in the verb. The verb's core meaning, to swagger about and make a boisterous racket, grew out of that picture of the unpolished countryman whose high spirits spill over into noise and bluster. Over time the sense settled into the idea of loud, unruly revelry, the sort of merrymaking that a polite townsperson might regard as coarse.

Synonyms: celebrating, reveling, carousing