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1 Definition
Vigorous enthusiasm and confident, stylish energy, often paired with a natural flair for whatever one is doing.
2 In Use
She walked into the boardroom with such élan that no one questioned whether she belonged there.
3 Word Origin
lancea Lat. · a spear → eslancer O.Fr. · to dart out → élan 19th c. English
Élan traces back to the Latin lancea, meaning a spear or lance, the same root that gives English words like lancer and lance. Old French speakers built the verb eslancer, to dart out or launch forward, from that martial image, capturing the sudden forward thrust of a thrown weapon. Over centuries the noun élan split off, keeping the sense of forward momentum but shifting it from the battlefield into personality, describing a burst of spirited, confident energy rather than an actual weapon in motion. English borrowed the word wholesale in the nineteenth century, accent and all, admiring the French flair it seemed to carry.
💡Fun Fact
Élan became something of a buzzword among English speaking writers and critics in the 1800s, prized precisely because it had no single word equivalent in English, a gap that still hasn't closed. Military historians sometimes use the phrase élan vital or simply élan to describe the morale and dash that let outnumbered troops fight above their weight, a usage the philosopher Henri Bergson later borrowed and expanded into élan vital, his term for the creative life force driving evolution. The word has also settled comfortably into everyday praise, showing up in reviews of dancers, chefs, and fashion designers whose work carries an extra spark of confident style. Unlike many borrowed French terms, élan never picked up a negative shade in English, it remains almost purely a compliment.
