enthusiasm
NounWordNet 3.0
Noun (3)
- a feeling of excitement
- overflowing with eager enjoyment or approvalSynonyms: exuberanceebullience
- a lively interest“enthusiasm for his program is growing”
Webster's Dictionary (GCIDE)
Enthusiasm \En*thu"si*asm\, n. [Gr. ?, fr. ? to be inspired or possessed by the god, fr. ?, ?, inspired: cf. enthousiasme. See Entheal, Theism.]
1.Inspiration as if by a divine or superhuman power; ecstasy; hence, a conceit of divine possession and revelation, or of being directly subject to some divine impulse. [1913 Webster]
Enthusiasm is founded neither on reason nor divine revelation, but rises from the conceits of a warmed or overweening imagination.— Locke.[1913 Webster]
2.A state of impassioned emotion; transport; elevation of fancy; exaltation of soul; as, the poetry of enthusiasm. [1913 Webster]
Resolutions adopted in enthusiasm are often repented of when excitement has been succeeded by the wearing duties of hard everyday routine.— Froude.[1913 Webster]
Exhibiting the seeming contradiction of susceptibility to enthusiasm and calculating shrewdness.— Bancroft.[1913 Webster]
3.Enkindled and kindling fervor of soul; strong excitement of feeling on behalf of a cause or a subject; ardent and imaginative zeal or interest; as, he engaged in his profession with enthusiasm. [1913 Webster]
Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.— Emerson.[1913 Webster]
4.Lively manifestation of joy or zeal. [1913 Webster]
Philip was greeted with a tumultuous enthusiasm.— Prescott.[1913 Webster]
The Devil's Dictionary
ENTHUSIASM, n. A distemper of youth, curable by small doses of repentance in connection with outward applications of experience. Byron, who recovered long enough to call it "entuzy-muzy," had a relapse, which carried him off -- to Missolonghi.