exaltation

From French exaltation, from Latin exaltātiō (“exaltation, elevation”), from exaltō (“raise, elevate, exalt”), from ex (“from, out of”) + altus (“high”).

• Rhymes: -eɪʃən

exaltation (countable and uncountable, plural exaltations)

1. The act of exalting or raising high; also, the state of being exalted; elevation.
2. The refinement or subtilization of a body, or the increasing of its virtue or principal property.
3. (astrology) That placement of a planet in the zodiac in which it is deemed to exert its strongest influence.
   • 1978, Lawrence Durrell, Livia, Faber & Faber 1992 (Avignon Quintet), p. 483:

     He often stood there in a muse until dusk fell, and then darkness, while once in a while the moon, ‘in her exaltation’ as the astrologers say, rose to remind him that such worldly musings meant nothing to the hostile universe without.

4. (rare) The collective noun for larks.
   • 1989, Ronald K. Siegel, Intoxication: The Universal Drive for Mind-Altering Substances, Park Street Press (2009), →ISBN, page 192:

     In a sense, the editorial cartoons were correct when they suggested that an exaltation of larks can fly under the influence into an aspect of vulturous behavior.

   • 2005, Lucille Bellucci, Journey from Shanghai, iUniverse (2005), →ISBN, page 83:

     “I'd like to think of my father being lifted to God in an exaltation of larks.”

   • 2005, Linda Bird Francke, On the Road with Francis of Assisi: A Timeless Journey Through Umbria and Tuscany, and Beyond, Random House (2006), →ISBN, page 232:

     It is said that an exaltation of larks, which had assembled on the roof of Francis's hut, suddenly—and inexplicably—took to the air just after sunset, wheeling and singing.

   • For more examples of usage of this term, see Citations:exaltation.
5. (medicine, archaic) An abnormal sense of personal well-being, power, or importance, observed as a symptom in various forms of insanity.

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exaltation f (plural exaltations)

1. exaltation

• “exaltation” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).