It’s my birthday week, so I thought it would a fun time to look at this old-fashioned word, popular in the Colonial American era. =)

Jollification is literally “making merry,” from jolly + -ication (“to make”) and dates from the 1760s. Though the adjective “jolly” had been around since the 1300s, jollification actually eventually led to the 20th century slang of jolly (or more often jollies) as a noun, which was just a shortening of jollification. (Think, “she gets her jollies from stamp collecting.”)

This year for my birthday, I decided that some authentic French macarons would make for excellent jollification, so I ordered some from ma-ka-rohn. Because seriously, is there a cookie that looks more celebratory?? I’ve long wanted to try them. If you’ve had them, what did you think? Love them? Hate them?