Ravishment comes from Old French ravissement, from ravir ('to seize, carry off'), from Latin rapere ('to seize'); the abstract sense of being carried away by emotion. The historical chain includes Old French ravissement and Latin rapere. The quoted older senses, "to seize, carry off" and "to seize", supply the semantic anchors for ravishment. The formation is best read as borrowed: the word ravishment carries its older form-history into a compact English lexical shape. In present English it is used as a noun, "a state of intense delight or rapture". Related English forms include ravish, ravishing, and rapt. The result is a noun whose etymology preserves both the older form and the later English specialization.