Life and Soul of the Party

In British English we often talk about someone being the “life and soul of the party”.  The American English equivalent is “life of the party”. We use the phrase to refer to people who contribute well to social situations.

Some examples:

• It’s always fun to go out with Lucy; that’s because she’s the life and soul of the party.
• I was feeling tired yesterday, so I’m sorry I wasn’t really the life and soul of the party. I hope I didn’t spoil things for everyone else.
• Peter was the life and soul of the party. Everything was much livelier after he arrived.

Some related words include:

• “Good mixer” – She enjoys being with other people, even if she hasn’t met them before. She has always been a good mixer.
• “Sociable” – Tony likes to be alone, but his brother is very sociable.
• “Outgoing” – His job means that he meets a lot of people, so he has to have a very outgoing personality.
• “Gregarious” – Some people are naturally gregarious and love to meet others.

Some antonyms include:

• “Poor mixer” – Isobel is such a poor mixer that I think it’s difficult for her to meet new people.
• “Unsociable” – He is so unsociable that he’s not much fun to be with.  
• “Shrinking violet” – Because Ivan is such a shrinking violet, he always keeps himself to himself and finds it difficult to make new friends.

And someone who is the opposite to the life and soul of the party might be called a “party pooper”. According to the Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary & Thesaurus, a party pooper is “someone who spoils other people’s enjoyment by disapproving of or not taking part in a particular activity”.

Some examples:

• We were having a great time until he arrived. He’s a real party pooper.
• I hate to be a party pooper, but I feel very tired and want to go home.

Other words to describe a party pooper are “spoilsport”, “killjoy” and “wet blanket”

_{Thanks to Liza for the question}

_{Posted by Graham}