Nowadays being “enthusiastic” is generally considered a good thing. It means you’re intensely interested in something (like a hobby), you enjoy it very much (like a piece of music), or you highly approve of it (like your favorite sports team). This hasn’t always been the case, though.
“Enthusiasm” came from the Greek word “enthousiasmos,” which in turn is derived from “enthousia.” That’s the state of being either possessed or inspired by a god. And those Greek gods were not always folks you’d want messing with you.
The word showed up in English in the early 1600s, and at that point it still had a religious connotation. Someone who was enthusiastic was in a frenzy of religious fervor or prophecy. It wasn’t long before it could also mean being in a state of poetic agitation, possibly because a great deal of the poetry of that era was also religious.
Later in the 1600s the meaning of “enthusiasm” broadened somewhat, but still focused on religion. At that time it meant “ill-regulated or misdirected religious emotion.” The word was used that way because Protestant sects were springing up that didn’t conform to the established religious traditions at the time. Around the era of the “Glorious Revolution” of 1688 in England (that’s when King James II was overthrown), “enthusiasm” became a derisive term for fanaticism in both political and religious areas — at the time, politics and religion were pretty closely tied. One of the complaints about King James II, after all, was that he was a “Papist” — that is, a Catholic, rather than the official sort of English Protestant. But even Protestants could be called “enthusiastic” if they weren’t the right sort of Protestant. There were a lot of rules.
There’s a memorial in Exeter Cathedral to George Lavington, who was the bishop there in the mid-1700s, that describes him as “Determined Enemy to Idolatry and Persecution / And successful Exposer of Pretence and Enthusiasm.” Enthusiasm, in other words, was definitely something you didn’t want, at least if you were a proper, establishment sort of person.
The English philosopher John Locke, in his 1689 “Essay Concerning Human Understanding” mentioned enthusiasts as people to avoid, because enthusiasm ruins your ability to understand anything at all.
The British prime minister Arthur Balfour agreed a couple of centuries later, when “enthusiasm” was no longer purely religious or political, although those aspects of it were certainly still relevant: “It is unfortunate, considering that enthusiasm moves the world, that so few enthusiasts can be trusted to speak the truth.” The Royal Society even included, in their bylaws, a rule that anyone discussing religion or politics at a Society meeting would be ejected for “enthusiasm.”
It wasn’t until fairly recently that “enthusiasm” shifted its implication from negative to positive. Now the negative aspect of being overly enthusiastic usually comes with qualifiers, like “rabid fan” or “ultra partisan.” And if you’re caught up in a “poetic frenzy,” well, you might just be a successful singer! On the other hand, have you noticed the number of people in the world who seem unable to understand anything at all?
