élan
See also: Appendix:Variations of "elan"
English edit
Alternative forms edit
Etymology edit
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
élan (countable and uncountable, plural élans)
- Spirit; zeal; ardor.
- 1916, Booth Tarkington, Penrod and Sam, page 197:
- Sam, carried away by the élan of the performance, was unable to resist joining them.
- 1971, Deborah S. Davis, “The Cultural Revolution in Wuhan”, in The Cultural Revolution in the Provinces[1], Harvard University Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 159:
- The goal of the Cultural Revolution was to radicalize the whole society, to create mass participation at all levels of decision-making, and to restore the revolutionary élan of the 1940s.
- 2012 March 4, Alice Rawsthorn, “Farewell, Pocket Calculator?”, in The New York Times[2]:
- A pocket calculator was the closest that most 1970s consumers came to owning anything with computational power, even if all it could do was basic math. Those tiny gizmos seemed enticing because they offered rare glimpses into the enigmatic world of technology, and the Sinclair Executive also had the élan of being the first one.
Usage notes edit
Related terms edit
Translations edit
spirit, zeal
Anagrams edit
French edit
Pronunciation edit
Etymology 1 edit
Noun edit
élan m (plural élans)
Derived terms edit
Descendants edit
Etymology 2 edit
From a Baltic language.
Noun edit
élan m (plural élans)
Further reading edit
- “élan”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Portuguese edit
Etymology edit
Unadapted borrowing from French élan.[1][2]
Pronunciation edit
- Hyphenation: é‧lan
Noun edit
élan m (plural élans)
- Alternative form of elã
References edit
- ^ “élan” in Dicionário infopédia da Língua Portuguesa. Porto: Porto Editora, 2003–2024.
- ^ “élan” in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa.