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What is meant by the phrase "a deal happier" (from Little Women by Louisa May Alcott)?

‘You said the other day you thought we were a deal happier than the King children, for they were fighting and fretting all the time, in spite of their money.’

Link: http://www.planetpublish.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Little_Women_NT.pdf
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  • No research shown. This is general reference (see eg Longman; Collins 7 (with 'a good/great deal ...')). 'A deal (better etc)' is old-fashioned for 'a great deal [better ...]'.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Jun 28, 2018 at 16:50

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It simply means, that the person has become "much happier", a "higher level of happiness" , "More happy".

So you could say:

I recently changed job, and this has made me feel a great deal happier than before.

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In the context of:

"You said the other day you thought we were a deal happier than the King children, for they were fighting and fretting all the time, in spite of their money."

The person who made the comment, is implying that they and the other person are more happy than the King children. They are implying this because the King children have several reasons to be unhappy (fighting/fretting). Additionally they imply that the wealth of the King children does not increase their level of happiness enough to outweigh their unhappiness; in relation to the people described by "you" and "we".

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  • @Monica's Accept the answer if you think it is adequate :)
    – Joshua Simon Bloom
    Commented Jun 28, 2018 at 14:04
  • Hello, Joshua. This question is inappropriate on ELU, which is aimed at linguists rather than those with more basic questions. For one thing, OP shows no sign of any research; merely looking up 'deal' in a reputable dictionary would at least point to the answer here. In addition, answers lacking reasonable research (and this means those where none accompanies the answer) are inappropriate on ELU.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Jun 28, 2018 at 16:58
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Short answer: 'a deal' = 'somewhat' because 'a great deal' = 'a lot'. The sentence in question would feel much more natural to a modern reader if it had said:

... you thought we were a great deal happier than the King children...

Longer answer: I also trip over that phrasing: "...we were a deal happier than the King's children".

In slightly informal English, 'deal' can be used in a number of non-literal or idiomatic ways (literally it means 'a transaction or pact').

  • It is a common intensifier to say "I am a great deal annoyed by that bird's cackling".
  • "What's the deal?" means "What is going on?".
  • It can be used to mean 'the matter at hand': "Hey, it's no big deal that you borrowed my fascinating book on anti-gravity; I bet you couldn't put it down."

These are mostly fixed phrases and can't be expanded very well beyond. I suppose at one time, as in the mid 1800's, 'that is a deal bigger' meant 'that is a lot bigger' (itself a bit of idiom), and the more intense version of 'That is a great deal bigger' took over and the weaker version hasn't been heard of since.

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