rejoice: [14] Rejoice was adapted from rejoiss-, the stem form of Old French rejoir ‘be joyful’. This was a compound verb formed from the intensive prefix re- and joir ‘be joyful’, which went back to Latin gaudēre ‘rejoice’, ultimate source of English joy. English originally used rejoice for ‘enjoy the possession of’. This survived until as late as the 16th century (‘Many covetous men do we see … to whom God gives power to get riches … but not liberty to rejoice and use them’, Sir Geoffrey Fenton, Golden Epistles 1577), and may lie behind the modern use of rejoice in for ‘possess’. => joy[rejoice etymology, rejoice origin, 英语词源]