kvellv.
/kvɛl/, U.S. /kvɛl/, /kəˈvɛl/ colloquial (esp. in Jewish usage).
1. intransitive. To feel or show great happiness, pride, or satisfaction; to exult or rejoice.Quot. 1966 could perhaps be interpreted as showing earlier evidence of sense 2b.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > pleasure > joy, gladness, or delight > rejoicing or exultation > rejoice or exult [verb (intransitive)]
fainc888
blissc897
gladc950
hightOE
spilea1000
make mirthc1225
playc1225
gladdena1300
to make joyc1300
joisec1320
joya1325
rejoyc1350
enjoyc1380
to be joyeda1382
mirtha1400
gloryc1400
rejoicec1405
enjoysec1470
triumph1535
exult1593
to take joya1616
gratify1811
tripudiate1891
kvell1940
1940 H. J. Mankiewicz & O. Welles Citizen Kane (film script, 1st rough draft, 16 Apr.) (Univ. Calif. Los Angeles Libr.: Special Coll.) 112 Bernstein..is doing nothing but beaming and admiring Kane, quelling like a mother at the Carnegie Hall debut of her son.
1966 Newsday (N.Y.) 18 Jan. 2 c/3 He said he ‘kvelled’ (Yiddish for ‘exulted’) over the fact that at last he was doing Sholoem Aleichem on Broadway.
1994 A. Heckerling Clueless (film script, first shooting draft) (O.E.D. Archive) Green Revised Pages 47 Cher. (to Dionne) Do you see how boys are responding? My heart is totally bursting. Dionne. (just as happy) I know. I'm kvelling.
2018 @oldtimeelwood 28 Oct. in twitter.com (O.E.D. Archive) My 6 year old outdoor cat just used the litter box for the first time ever... I'm kvelling here like it's the greatest thing to ever happen.
2.
a. transitive. With direct speech as object: to say enthusiastically, especially out of pride or admiration.
ΚΠ
1980 Minneapolis Tribune 4 Dec. b15/5 ‘That Ernie!’ she kvells after having endured all his therapeutic verbal sadism. ‘His mother must be real proud!’
1992 Newsweek 2 Mar. 61 The movie that is eliciting such rapture (‘I loved, loved, loved it,’ kvells producer Howard Rosenman) is a dark and viciously droll portrait.
2004 N.Y. Times (Nexis) 8 Mar. 2 I burst with joy and kvelled, ‘My daughter designed it!’
b. intransitive. To speak enthusiastically, especially out of pride or admiration. Frequently with about, over.Not always clearly distinguishable from sense 1.
ΚΠ
1984 M. E. Kerr Him she Loves? ix. 87 ‘He called us to kvell and—’ ‘To what?’ ‘Kvell. That's Yiddish. It means to gush.’
2000 Jerusalem Post (Nexis) 28 July 15 ‘Coffee,’ says Klein, sounding like a proud father kvelling over the accomplishments of his children, ‘is the world's most popular beverage.’
2019 @niais 13 Jan. in twitter.com (accessed 23 May 2019) It is truly a pleasure to read all the researchers kvelling about their students and sharing in their successes.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2019; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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v.1940