Definition of "élan"

Sam, carried away by the élan of the performance, was unable to resist joining them.

1916, Booth Tarkington, Penrod and Sam, page 197

The goal of the Cultural Revolution was to radicalize the whole society, to create mass participation at all levels of decision-making, and to restore the revolutionary élan of the 1940s.

1971, Deborah S. Davis, “The Cultural Revolution in Wuhan”, in The Cultural Revolution in the Provinces‎, Harvard University Press, page 159

A pocket calculator was the closest that most 1970s consumers came to owning anything with computational power, even if all it could do was basic math. Those tiny gizmos seemed enticing because they offered rare glimpses into the enigmatic world of technology, and the Sinclair Executive also had the élan of being the first one.

2012 March 4, Alice Rawsthorn, “Farewell, Pocket Calculator?”, in The New York Times‎