This is something I actually think is extremely important to our psychic landscape as a people - the word we use to mean "feeling good" and "the opposite of sad" is derived from a word that for centuries meant "lucky in one's circumstances".
"Money can't buy happiness" - but to suddenly have money was a happy event. Money is happiness. It's a blessing.. I was going to say it's fortunate, but. Fortune. Fortuitous. A large amount of money is a fortune; having money is fortunate.
You see how all these things are tied together in our language? Luck is money is happiness is luck.
All those old timey sayings that are like "Happy is the man who marries a woman who mends trousers." or whatever weren't talking about an emotion, weren't suggesting contentment or glee or satisfaction. They were saying this is a good outcome.
To feel happy would be to count oneself as lucky, to recognize one's circumstances as good. So "happy" came to describe the feeling because we didn't really have a deep or broad vocabulary to talk about emotional life; that's getting *meta*.
Passions? Sure. We had words for rages and lusts and so on. But the words we use to explore our inner landscapes are heavily repurposed. Like psyche, as in psychiatry and psychology and psychotropic. Meant life, vital essence, spirit, animating force. Ghost. Soul.
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