élan.
THE SHORT MEANINGEnergy, enthusiasm, forward momentum.
MovementMeaning & usage
spirit, verve
fervor, passion
momentum
Il prend son élan.
run up
uncertain period of time, a while, a spell
Where this word comes from
Deverbal from élancer (“to throw oneself at”).
moose, elk
Where this word comes from
Borrowed from German Elen, Elend, from Middle High German eln, elent, of uncertain origin. Possibly from a Baltic language (compare Lithuanian élnias and Latvian alnis), from Proto-Balto-Slavic *elenias, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁el-h₁en (“red deer, elk”). Compare also Armenian եղնիկ (eġnik) and Proto-Slavic *elỳ (“deer”) whence also Bulgarian еле́н (elén), Polish jeleń and Ukrainian о́лень (ólenʹ). Alternatively, Middle High German eln, elent, may derive from Old High German elho, elaho, a weak stem form of Proto-Germanic *elhaz (“elk”). More at English elk.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
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Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.