instigation

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English instigacioun,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French instigacion^[5][2] and directly borrowed from Latin īnstīgātiō (“an urging, incitement”).^[5][2][6] The OED takes it from the Latin alone and compares French instigation, which it dates to 1332;^[7] the Anglo-Norman form is recorded from 1406.^[8] The Latin noun comes from the past participle of īnstīgō (“to urge on, incite”),^[5][6] formed from in- (“in, on”) and *stīgō (“to prick, goad”),^[6][3][5] from Proto-Indo-European *steig- (“to prick, stick, pierce”),^[6][5] the root of Old English stician (“to prick, goad, stab”) and hence of stick.^[6][5] Barnhart and Collins compare Ancient Greek στίζω (stízō, “to prick”).^[3][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Urging, incitement: about 1422, in T. Hoccleve, whose hounds stand for wicked thoughts that "maken swich instigacion".^[7][2] Barnhart dates the word to before 1410.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The noun is older than the verb: instigate is recorded only from 1542, and Barnhart and Etymonline think it may be a back-formation from the noun.^[3][5][4] From 1526 the word also meant the thing that urges someone on, an incentive or spur.^[7][10][11] Johnson (1755) gave it a bad colouring, defining it as "incitement to a crime; encouragement; impulse to ill", quoting Shakespeare and South's "the instigation of the devil".^[12] Modern dictionaries define it without that colouring, as any act of urging.^[4][10]

Timeline

• c. 1422 – urging, incitement, spelled instigacion.^[7][2] Barnhart dates the word to before 1410.^[3]
• 1526 – an incentive, stimulus or spur.^[7][11]
• 1542 – the verb instigate.^[4][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of urging or provoking someone to do something; incitement: The inquiry was opened at the mayor's instigation.^[4][10][7]
2. Something that spurs a person on; an incentive or stimulus.^[4][10][7]

Related words

• instigate
• instinct
• stick

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c d e f g Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
9. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.