40 minutes ago, drpaladin said:

Blithe always reminds me of the classic 1945 movie Blithe Spirit with Rex Harrison.

And adapted from the play written by the somewhat blithe gay English playwright and performer Noel Coward.

31 minutes ago, drpaladin said:

"Mad dogs and English men go out in the midday sun."

He wrote songs too.

He certainly did. Mad Dogs and Englishman is one of my favourites along with Mrs Worthington. I also like his song "Let's do it" with lines such as "cute young men who sell antiques do it" and "teenagers squeezed into jeans do it" along with some scandalous comments about Texas. What was that definition of blithe again?

I did scan through all 253 entries for 'Blithe', but chose not to peruse the omitted results(253 was enough for me). An amazing number of these entries had a Noel Coward connection. A daring, avant garde actor for his times. We don't hear its' use very often these days. Then again there so many synonyms offered, that is no surprise!

BLITHE Synonyms: 209 Similar and Opposite Words | Merriam-Webster Thesaurus

Blithe is Germanic in origin, from Proto-Germanic *blīþiz (“friendly; gentle, mild; pleasing”).  

It's also related  to Dutch, blijde (happy, glad, joyful). 

It first originated in Old English before 1150, probably during the Anglo-Saxon period that lasted from 410-1066.  The Anglo-Saxons were a mix of Germanic tribes from northern Germany, Denmark, and the Netherlands., hence the Germanic and Dutch origins for the word.