Etymologically
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excite

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Pronunciation

  • /ɪkˈsaɪt/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English exciten,[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French exciter, also esciter,[5][2][3] or directly borrowed from Latin excitō (“to rouse, call forth, produce”),[2][3][6][7] a frequentative of excieō (“to call forth, instigate”),[2][5][8] formed from ex- (“out”) and cieō (“to set in motion, call”),[2][5][9] from Proto-Indo-European *keie- (“to set in motion”).[2] The Anglo-Norman verb is recorded from the second quarter of the 13th century, meaning to incite, rouse or urge on.[10] The same Latin verb is the source of cite, incite, recite and solicit.[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

To move, stir up, instigate: before 1340, in Richard Rolle's Psalter.[5][3] Barnhart dates the sense "to stir up the feelings of" to before 1387, in Trevisa's translation of Higden's Polychronicon.[3]

Semantic evolution

For centuries excite was a fairly neutral verb meaning to provoke or produce a response, as in "excite comment".[9] From 1393, in Gower, it meant to call up or awaken a feeling or faculty,[5][2] and by 1398 it meant to bring about a condition or action.[5] Johnson (1755) defined it as "to rouse; to animate; to stir up; to encourage".[11] A scientific sense, to produce electric or magnetic activity, is recorded from 1646, in Sir Thomas Browne,[5] and a physiological one, to stimulate a bodily organ, from the early 1830s.[5][2] The sense of agitated elation, rousing someone to strong emotion, appeared only in 1821;[5][2] Ayto places it in the mid 19th century,[9] and Weekley notes that the colloquial use of exciting is of the 19th century.[12] In physics it also means raising an atom, nucleus or particle to a higher energy state.[4]

Timeline

  • before 1340 – to stir up, instigate, incite.[5][3]
  • 1393 – to awaken a feeling or faculty.[5]
  • 1398 – to bring about, provoke (an action or condition).[5]
  • 1646 – to produce electric or magnetic activity in.[5]
  • 1821 – to move to strong emotion.[5][2]
  • 1832 – to stimulate a bodily organ or tissue.[5]
  • 1879 – in photography, to make a plate sensitive to light.[5]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To make someone feel strong emotion, especially eager anticipation or agitation: The news of the trip excited the children.[13][4][5]
  2. To call forth a feeling or response; to arouse: Her remarks excited suspicion.[13][4][5]
  3. To bring about or stir up: to excite unrest.[13][5]
  4. To arouse sexually.[13][4]
  5. (physiology) To stimulate an organ, tissue or nerve into activity.[13][4][5]
  6. To produce a magnetic field in, or set up an electric current in.[4][13][5]
  7. (physics) To raise an atom, nucleus or electron to a higher energy state.[4][13]

Word family

  • excitedly
  • excitability
  • excitable
  • overexcite

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  9. ^ a b c d Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  10. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  13. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins