ETYMOLOGY
from agelaste (person who never laughs), from Greek ἀγέλαστος (agelastos – not laughing),
from ἀ- (a– having sense without) + γελασ-, stem of γελᾶν (to laugh) + ‑τος
EXAMPLE
“…But let us beware lest in our laughter we commit the very sin which raised it, for through all laughter, the most benighted, must arise primarily from an, at least, imagined comic perception, in most the maximum is on the wrong side, Over-laughing, the sin of the ‘hypergelast’ as Mr. Meredith terms him, is even less tolerable to the muse than that of the ‘agelast‘ he who
‘Show his teeth in way of smile
Though Nestor swore the jest be laughable,’
and if we are guilty of it, the muse will but send out another laughter upon ours, which in its turn may need chastening…”
From: George Meredith: Some Characteristics.
By Richard Le Gallienne, 1890
‘The Comic Muse’
PRONUNCIATION
AJ-uh-lasst
Lexicophilia 