Ecstasy Literally Means Standing Outside Yourself

Ecstasy is joy so strong that ordinary awareness gives way. The Greek *ekstasis* means standing outside oneself, which is why the word served for religious trance long before it described a good night out. Since the 1980s it has also been the street name of a drug, and that sense now competes with the older ones.

• Overwhelming happiness. *She was in ecstasy at the news.*
• A trance or rapture (religious or literary). *A mystic's ecstasy.*
• A recreational drug, MDMA (informal). *A warning about ecstasy pills.*

Word forms

How it is used in a sentence

• The fans were ecstatic at the final whistle.Ecstatic is far more common in speech than the noun.
• He described a state of religious ecstasy.The older sense, still standard in writing about mysticism.
• She went into ecstasies over the dessert.The plural is playful, and usually a little ironic.

Degrees of delight

• Pleased — mild and ordinary
• Delighted — clearly happy, still polite
• Thrilled — happy with a jolt of excitement
• Elated — lifted, often after success
• Ecstatic — as far as the scale goes

From Greek *ekstasis*, from *ek* (out) and *histanai* (to place or stand). It passed through Latin and Old French into English in the fourteenth century, first for trance states, later for plain overwhelming joy.