élan vital en · NOUN
Pronunciation
- /eɪˈlɑn viˈtɑl/
Etymology
An unadapted borrowing from French élan vital (“life force”, literally “vital impetus or force”), coined by Henri Bergson in 1907.
Meanings
-
(uncountable) The life force or vital principle posited in the philosophy of Henri Bergson; any mysterious or creative vital principle.
She turned astonished blue eyes towards Mr. Wimbush, then let them fall on to the seething mass of élan vital that fermented in the sty.
1921, Aldous Huxley, chapter 5, in Crome Yellow, London: Chatto & Windus, page 40:Progress was a labyrinth. . . people plunging blindly in and then rushing wildly back, shouting that they had found it. . . the invisible king—the élan vital—the principle of evolution. . .
1920 April, F[rancis] Scott Fitzgerald, chapter 5, in This Side of Paradise, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, book II (The Education of a Personage), page 285:Electricity! the force of the future—for everything, you know, including the élan vital itself, will soon be proven electrical in nature.
2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, reprint edition (fiction; paperback), New York: Penguin Books, published 2007, →ISBN, →OCLC, →OL, page 714:
Relateds
Translations (3)
pl élan vital (life force in the philosophy of Henri Bergson) · cmn 生命衝動 /生命冲动 (life force in the philosophy of Henri Bergson) · fr élan vital (life force in the philosophy of Henri Bergson)