Joy, for example, over capturing the French (4)
I believe the answer is:
glee
'joy' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'example over capturing the french' is the wordplay.
'example' becomes 'eg'.
'over' is a reversal indicator.
'capturing' is an insertion indicator.
'the french' becomes 'le'.
'eg' backwards is 'ge'.
'ge' going around 'le' is 'GLEE'.
'for' is the link.
(Other definitions for glee that I've seen before include "Elation" , "TV show" , "(Malicious) satisfaction" , "Merriment or gloating" , "much fun" .)