elation

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English elacioun,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French elacion,^[5][6][7][8] later also directly borrowed from Latin ēlātiō (“a lifting up, a carrying out”).^[7][9] The Anglo-Norman form elaciun is recorded from 1212.^[10] The Latin noun of action comes from ēlātus (“uplifted, exalted”),^[6][11] which serves as the past participle of efferō (“to carry out, bring out”),^[3][6][12] formed from ex- (“out”) and ferō (“to carry”),^[12] from Proto-Indo-European *bher- (“to carry”).^[6] The Latin participle itself rests on lātus (“carried, borne”),^[6][13] which the American Heritage Dictionary refers to a separate root, Proto-Indo-European *telə-.^[14]

Earliest recorded meaning

Pride arising from success, vainglory: about 1386 in Chaucer's Parson's Tale,^[5] about 1390 in the Middle English Dictionary, which also quotes the Mirror of Saint Edmund.^[2] Chaucer's concordance glosses it as arrogance.^[15]

Semantic evolution

A lifting of the spirits was already a figurative sense in Latin.^[6] In medieval use the stress fell on arrogance: the Anglo-Norman word could mean both great happiness and haughtiness,^[10] but Middle English had mainly excessive self-esteem, including dissatisfaction with one's rank and vainglory over one's qualities.^[2] Johnson (1755) still defined the word as "haughtiness proceeding from success; pride of prosperity",^[16] although he himself had used it in a neutral or good sense in the Rambler in 1750, the OED's first record of what is now the usual meaning.^[5][6] The old sense of pride is now rare.^[7] Some learned uses stayed close to the Latin, such as lifting (1578) and carrying out, as of a corpse (1699), and neither lasted.^[5] The verb elate, recorded from 1578, is younger than the noun,^[5][13] and Etymonline allows that it may be a back-formation from it.^[6] Merriam-Webster Unabridged also records a pathological euphoria.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1386 – pride, vainglory.^[5][15]
• c. 1420 – growth (rare, obsolete).^[5]
• 1578 – lifting, raising (obsolete).^[5]
• 1699 – carrying out, as of a dead body (rare, obsolete).^[5]
• 1750 – high spirits, joyousness.^[5][6]
• 1870 – an outburst of high spirits (rare).^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. Great joy and exhilaration; high spirits, as after a success: The team's elation lasted all the way home.^{[17][18][3][5]}
2. A pathological state of euphoria.^[3]
3. (rare) Pride or vainglory resulting from success.^[7][19][3]

Related words

• elate
• elated
• efferent
• oblate
• relate
• translate

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
11. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
12. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
13. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
14. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
15. ^ a b Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
16. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
17. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
18. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
19. ^ The Chambers Dictionary (2014), 13th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers