A lively, invigorating rush of cheerful excitement.
A lively, invigorating rush of cheerful excitement — the thrill of being stimulated and enlivened.
The most physical and adrenaline-tinged member: invigorating excitement and “thrill” rather than deep happiness (it pairs with thrill and kick, not joy), typically tied to a stimulating activity — a summit, a fast ride, surfing a wave. Active and arousing where bliss is still; private where jubilation is public; without euphoria's drug/clinical overtone; and lacking the “transported out of oneself” trance of ecstasy or rapture. High but brief, tracking the event.
1620s, from Late Latin exhilarationem “a gladdening,” from exhilarare “to gladden,” from hilarus “cheerful” (related to Greek hilaros). The literal sense is “to make thoroughly cheerful.”
Stable since the 1600s in the sense of enlivening excitement. No reliable recent-generation shift is sourced.