1.) Pertaining to the river Lethe; hence, pertaining to or causing oblivion or forgetfulness of the past.
Etymology: from Latin Lēthæ-us (adoption of Greek ληθαῖος, from λήθη Lethe, one of the five rivers of the Greek underworld) + -an.
"From the slain Victims pour the streaming Blood,
And leave their Bodies in the shady Wood:
Nine Mornings thence, Lethean Poppy bring,
T' appease the Manes of the Poets King:
And to propitiate his offended Bride,
A fatted Calf, and a black Ewe provide:
This finish'd, to the former Woods repair."
(Georgics by Virgil, John Dryden (trans.), 1697)
(The Waters of Lethe, Thomas Benjamin Kennington, 1890)
1.) An impetuous rush (e.g. of troops). 2.) In English use chiefly abstract: Ardour, impetuousness, vivacity (O.E.D. 2nd Ed.).
Etymology: French; believed to be from élancer, from Latin ex, out + late Latin lanceāre, from lancea, lance.
"But Blondel contests the very idea of a natural happiness for man, just as he contests the idea of a natural religion, based on no more than human musings about the divine, without some revelation from God in his transcendence, that is, for a nature whose very elan is a quest for the infinite, an aspiration at once congenital and inefficacious by itself, for a knowledge that saturates and a fruition that leaves nothing to be desired" (Maurice Blondel: A Philosophical Life, Oliva Blanchette, 2010).
