Sense file
How the sense moved
The archive follows the dated record first, then reads the social or rhetorical pressure that hardened, softened, narrowed, or reversed the word.
Older meaning
Being inspired or possessed by a god.
Modern meaning
Strong excitement or eagerness.
Research lens
A vivid sacred-to-secular shift that helps explain how much modern English has cooled older ecstatic language.
Meaning trail
Root
god within
Sacred inspiration defined the early word.
Older sense
divinely inspired fervor
Not ordinary excitement.
Now
strong interest
The sacred charge was secularized.