rapture means in some forms of fundamentalist Protestant eschatology, a prophesied sudden removal of Christian believers from the Earth before the Tribulation or simultaneous with the second coming of Jesus Christ. It carries an Arena rating of 1647, earned across 3 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, rapture ranks #198 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #574 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #874 of 17,143 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #875 of 17,131 for Scariest Words.
rapture is pronounced /ˈɹæpt͡ʃəː/.
Why “rapture” is a great word
A state of profound ecstatic joy or spiritual exaltation, or the specific event of being seized and carried away. From the Latin raptūra ('a carrying off, abduction, seizure'), from rapere ('to seize, snatch, carry off'), first attested in English c. 1600. Unlike 'ecstasy' (which suggests a temporary, overwhelming frenzy) or 'bliss' (which implies a serene and settled contentment), rapture is an active seizure, a delight so forceful it constitutes an abduction from the ordinary. It is the gasp at a sudden, perfect chord, the lifted face in a shaft of cathedral light, the suspended breath before a kiss—the self momentarily snatched from time by a joy that feels less like an emotion and more like a destination.
Etymology
Borrowed from Middle French rapture, from Latin raptūra, future active participle of rapiō (“snatch, carry off”).
name
- In some forms of fundamentalist Protestant eschatology, a prophesied sudden removal of Christian believers from the Earth before the Tribulation or simultaneous with the second coming of Jesus Christ.
noun
- Extreme pleasure, happiness or excitement.e.g.“They went into raptures about the meal they'd had.”
- The act of kidnapping or abducting, especially the forceful carrying off of a woman.
- Rape; ravishment; sexual violation.
- The act of carrying, conveying, transporting or sweeping along by force of movement; the force of such movement; the fact of being carried along by such movement.e.g.“That 'gainst a rock, or flat, her keel did dash / With headlong rapture.” — 1614–1615, Homer, “(please specify the book number)”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., Homer’s Odysses. […], London: […] Rich[ard] Field [and William Jaggard], for Nathaniell Butter, published 1615, →OCL
- A spasm; a fit; a syncope; delirium.e.g.“Your pratling nurse
Into a rapture lets her baby cry” — c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] B
verb
- To cause to experience great happiness or excitement.e.g.“She raptured me in summer by giving me Fitzgerald's flawed and gorgeous masterpiece, the book that held his tortured heart.” — 2012, The Books They Gave Me: True Stories of Life, Love, and Lit, page 138:
- To experience great happiness or excitement.
- To take (someone) off the Earth and bring (them) to Heaven as part of the Rapture.
- To take part in the Rapture; to leave Earth and go to Heaven as part of the Rapture.
- To state (something, transitive) or talk (intransitive) rapturously.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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