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Origin and history of rapturous

rapturous(adj.)

"ecstatically joyous or exalted," 1670s, from rapture + -ous. Related: Rapturously (1660s).

Entries linking to rapturous

c. 1600, "act of carrying off" as prey or plunder, from rapt + -ure, or else from French rapture, from Medieval Latin raptura "seizure, rape, kidnapping," from Latin raptus "a carrying off, abduction, snatching away; rape" (see rapt). The earliest attested use in English is with women as objects and in 17c. it sometimes meant rape (v.), which word is a close relation to this one.

The sense of "spiritual ecstasy, state of mental transport or exaltation" is recorded by c. 1600 (raptures). The connecting notion is a sudden or violent taking and carrying away. The meaning "expression of exalted or passionate feeling" in words or music is from 1610s. The Rapture as an understanding of the Book of Revelation where faithful Christians will be lifted from the Earth to avoid the Apocalyptic Tribulation, is by 1852, after an interpretation by John Nelson Darby (1800 - 1882.)

word-forming element making adjectives from nouns, meaning "having, full of, having to do with, doing, inclined to," from Old French -ous, -eux, from Latin -osus (compare -ose (1)). In chemistry, "having a lower valence than forms expressed in -ic."

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