morale

Etymology

Borrowed from French moral.

noun

1. The capacity of people to maintain belief in an institution or a goal, or even in oneself and others.
   After the layoffs, morale was at an all time low; the staff were so dispirited nothing was getting done.
   Morale is an important quality in soldiers. With good morale they'll charge into a hail of bullets; without it they won't even cross a street.
   A morale-boosting exercise
   Proponents of the race — notably Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Mary Wittenberg, director of the marathon — said the event would provide a needed morale boost, as well as an economic one. 2012 November 2, Ken Belson, New York Times, retrieved 2012-11-02