Meaning

noun a happy party

noun a yawl used by a ship's sailors for general work

verb be silly or tease one another

originFrom Middle English joli, jolif (“merry, cheerful”), from Old French joli, jolif (“merry, joyful”). For the loss of final -f in English, compare tardy, hasty, hussy, etc. It is uncertain whether the Old French word is from Old Norse jól ("a midwinter feast, Yule", hence "fest-ive"), in which case, equivalent to yule + -ive, compare Dutch jolig (“happy, festive, frolicsome, jolly”), West Frisian…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0