“Elation is the feeling of being lifted — the Latin latus means carried, borne aloft, and elatio is the state of having been raised up. The emotion of exhilaration is built from the physics of elevation.”
Latin elatus is the past participle of efferre — to carry out, to lift up, to exalt. Efferre combines ex- (out) and ferre (to carry); the past participle elatus means 'lifted out,' 'carried high,' 'elevated.' Elation — the noun from elatus — is therefore the state of having been raised to a height. The physical metaphor is embedded from the start.
Latin efferre also gave English 'efferent' (carrying outward, as nerve signals carry commands from brain to muscle), 'export' (via the variant portare), and 'fertile' (via a related carrying-root). The same idea of bearing and carrying runs through all these words. Elation is what happens when the carrying is upward.
Medieval Latin used elatio specifically for spiritual exaltation — the state of being lifted by divine grace. Thomas à Kempis in The Imitation of Christ (15th century) cautioned against elatio — excessive spiritual self-elevation — distinguishing it from genuine humility. The emotion was suspect in medieval spirituality: to feel lifted was often the sin of pride wearing the disguise of devotion.
Modern English elation is unambiguously positive — a surge of happiness, usually following an achievement or unexpected good fortune. The elevation metaphor survived the theological suspicion. We still say we are 'on top of the world' when elated; we feel 'lifted'; we are 'high' with happiness. The body's proprioception of emotion tells us what we feel by where we imagine ourselves to be.
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Elation rises, as the word always promised it would. The physiological experience of intense positive emotion includes exactly this: the body feels lighter, the chest expands, the face lifts. The metaphor of elevation is not imposed on the feeling — the feeling creates it. Happiness is antigravity, and the Latin past participle was paying attention.
The religious caution against elatio has been forgotten. To be elated now is straightforwardly good. But the old warning had a point: the feeling of being lifted, of being above the ordinary, of transcending the normal level — this can become self-deception. The elated person believes they have arrived somewhere permanent. They have not.
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