Elegant, el′e-gant, adj. pleasing to good taste: graceful: neat: refined: nice: richly ornamental.—ns. El′egance, El′egancy, the state or quality of being elegant: the beauty of propriety: refinement: that which is elegant; Elegante (el-e-gangt′), a lady of fashion.—adv. El′egantly. [Fr.,—L. elegans, -antis—e, out, and root of legĕre, to choose.]
Elegy, el′e-ji, n. a song of mourning: a funeral-song: a poem written in elegiac metre.—adj. Elegī′ac, belonging to elegy: mournful: used in elegies, esp. noting the kind of metre, alternate hexameter and pentameter lines.—n. elegiac verse.—adj. Elegī′acal.—ns. Elē′giast, El′egist, a writer of elegies.—v.i. El′egīse, to write an elegy.—v.t. to write an elegy on. [Fr.,—L.,—Gr. elegos, a lament.]
Element, el′e-ment, n. a first principle: one of the essential parts of anything: an ingredient: the proper state or sphere of any thing or being: (pl.) the rudiments of learning: the bread and wine used in the Eucharist: fire, air, earth, and water, supposed by the ancients to be the foundation of everything: (chem.) the simplest known constituents of all compound substances: (astron.) those numerical quantities, and those principles deduced from astronomical observations and calculations, which are employed in the construction of tables exhibiting the planetary motions.—adj. Element′al, pertaining to elements or first principles: fundamental: belonging to or produced by elements.—n. Element′alism, the theory which resolves the divinities of antiquity into the elemental powers.—adv. Element′ally.—adj. Element′ary, of a single element: primary: uncompounded: pertaining to the elements: treating of first principles.—Elemental spirits, beings in medieval belief who presided over the four 'elements,' living in and ruling them. [Fr.,—L. elementum, pl. elementà, first principles.]
Elemi, el′em-i, n. a fragrant resinous substance, obtained from the Manila pitch-tree, Arbol de la Brea.—n. El′emin, the crystallisable portion of elemi. [Cf. Fr. élémi, Sp. elemi; perh. Ar.]
Elench, e-lengk′, Elenchus, e-lengk′us, n. refutation: a sophism.—adjs. Elench′ic, -al, Elenc′tic. [L.,—Gr. elengchos—elengchein, to refute.]
Elephant, el′e-fant, n. the largest quadruped, having a very thick skin, a trunk, and two ivory tusks: a special size of paper.—ns. Elephan′tiac, one affected with elephantiasis; Elephantī′asis, a disease chiefly of tropical climates, consisting of an overgrowth of the skin and connective tissue of the parts affected, with occasional attacks of inflammation resembling erysipelas.—adjs. Elephant′ine, pertaining to an elephant: like an elephant: very large or ungainly; Elephant′oid, elephant-like.—ns. El′ephant-seal, the largest of the seals, the male measuring about 20 feet in length; El′ephant's-foot, a plant of which the root-stock forms a large fleshy mass resembling an elephant's foot, used as food by the Hottentots; El′ephant-shrew, name applied to a number of long-nosed, long-legged Insectivora, natives of Africa, and notable for their agile jumping over loose sand.—A white elephant, a gift which occasions the recipient more trouble than it is worth—a white elephant being a common gift of the kings of Siam to a courtier they wished to ruin. [M. E. olifaunt—O. Fr. olifant—L. elephantum, elephas, -antis—Gr. elephas, acc. to some from Heb. eleph, aleph, an ox.]
Eleusinian, el-ū-sin′i-an, adj. relating to Eleusis in Attica.—Eleusinian mysteries, the mysteries of Demeter celebrated at Eleusis.
Eleutherian, el-ū-thē′ri-an, adj. bountiful.
Eleutheromania, el-ūth-er-o-mā′ni-a, n. mad zeal for freedom.—n. Eleutheromā′niac (Carlyle), one possessed with such. [Formed from Gr. eleutheros, free, and mania.]
Elevate, el′e-vāt, v.t. to raise to a higher position: to raise in mind and feelings: to improve: to cheer: to exhilarate: to intoxicate.—p.adjs. El′evate, -d, raised: dignified: exhilarated.—ns. Elevā′tion, the act of elevating or raising, or the state of being raised: exaltation: an elevated place or station: a rising ground: height: (archit.) a representation of the flat side of a building, drawn with mathematical accuracy, but without any attention to effect: (astron., geog.) the height above the horizon of an object on the sphere, measured by the arc of a vertical circle through it and the zenith: (gun.) the angle made by the line of direction of a gun with the plane of the horizon; El′evator, the person or thing that lifts up: a lift or machine for raising grain, &c., to a higher floor: a muscle raising a part of the body.—adj. El′evatory, able or tending to raise. [L. elevāre, -ātum—e, out, up, levāre, to raise—levis, light. See Light (2).]