Rapture
Etymology
From Medieval Latin “raptura” (a seizing), from Latin “raptus,” the past participle of “rapere,” to seize or carry off. The core image is of being physically snatched away, which shades into the sense of being swept out of oneself by overwhelming emotion; a parallel religious sense describes the faithful being caught up to heaven.
noun · /RAP-chur/
A feeling of intense joy or ecstasy that carries one away.
What it names
The transported, self-forgetting bliss in which delight is so total it lifts you out of ordinary awareness.
Example
The first time she heard the choir fill the cathedral, she stood in silent rapture.
Related idea
A burst of euphoria is intense but still grounded in the self; rapture goes further, carrying you away so completely that self-consciousness dissolves.
noun · /RAP-chur/
In some Christian theology, the future event in which believers are suddenly caught up from earth to meet Christ.
What it names
The end-times moment, drawn chiefly from a reading of Paul’s letters, when the faithful are lifted bodily into the sky.
Example
The novel imagines a small town the morning after the Rapture, its churches half-emptied.
Related idea
This sense and the ecstatic one share the Latin raptus, "seized" — to be enraptured is to be carried away. Compare eschatology, the broader study of last things.