adhortatio

Forms

adhortātiō f (genitive adhortātiōnis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin adhortor (“to encourage, urge”) + -tiō.^[2][1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cicero has it in De oratore, setting aside his own exhortation to come to the speakers' discussion.^[4][3] Köbler dates it from Livy.^[5]

Semantic evolution

It is a speech or words meant to persuade, an appeal or encouragement.^[2][4] In Livy it is often military: the exhortations each army needed at that moment, a general's appeal not heard for the shouting of men demanding battle, and a letter ending with an exhortation to take up the war.^[2][3] Curtius has soldiers strengthened by mutual exhortation, and Seneca sets exhortations against dissuasions.^[3] A grammarian defines it as urging towards something.^[3] Church Latin has “exhortation, encouragement”.^[6]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero, in De oratore.^[4][3][5]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy, of exhortations to soldiers.^[2][3][5]
• 1st century AD – Curtius, of mutual encouragement.^[3][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A persuasive speech, an appeal, exhortation.^[2][4][1]
2. (military) Words of encouragement to soldiers.^[2][3]
3. (rhetoric) An exhortation meant to win the audience's consent.^[1]

Related words

• adhortor
• hortor
• cohortātiō
• exhortātiō

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
4. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson