Definition of "pleasantry" [pleas•ant•ry]

• A humorous remark or act; a jest. (noun)
• A polite social utterance; a civility: exchanged pleasantries before getting down to business. (noun)
• A good-humored or playful manner in conversation or social relations. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "His matter quite apart -- and it is always interesting -- and abstractedly from his pervasive pleasantry, which is always original, it is a wonder that he is not more esteemed than he is in an age which professes to set store by style."
• "I saw enough to conclude, that Ancennis was not without the characteristic French elegance; and I must once for all say, that the manners of Marmontel are founded in nature, and that the daughters of the yeomanry and humbler farmers in France have an elegance, a vivacity, and a pleasantry, which is no where to be found out of France."
• "The groundwork of the pleasantry is the identity in form of the proper name with the common noun 'will.'"