Etymologically
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concitatus

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Forms

concitātus (feminine concitāta, neuter concitātum, comparative concitātior, superlative concitātissimus); first/second-declension adjective[1]

Etymology

Used as an adjective, it is the perfect participle from Latin concitō (“to set in rapid motion, stir up”).[1][2] That verb is con- with citō (“to set in motion”), the frequentative of cieō “to set moving”; de Vaan reconstructs a participle Proto-Italic *kito- (“stirred”) and an aorist Proto-Indo-European *(ḱ)ei(h₂)- (“to start to move”), comparing the aorist Ancient Greek ἔκιε (ékie, “started to move”).[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Cicero,[4] whose De re publica says that the revolution of the starry sky is the swifter one.[1]

Semantic evolution

Besides the senses of the verb, it is fast or rapid.[1] Of feelings and states of mind it is roused, vehement or violent: Valerius Maximus passes from a calm emotion to a more excited one.[1] Of style it is energetic and vehement, as Cicero's swift and vehement speech, and of actions excited, as Livy's shouting that grows more excited as the fight increases.[1] The TLL sets it beside excitātus, īnstīgātus and īrātus, of crowds and peoples stirred up.[2]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of the swift heavens and of vehement speech.[1][4]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of excited shouting.[1][4]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Fast, rapid.[1]
  2. Of feelings, roused, vehement, violent; of style, energetic, impetuous; of actions, excited.[1][2]

Usage notes

A rare fourth-declension noun concitātus, -ūs “impulse, agitation” appears in Sidonius Apollinaris.[5][2][4]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  2. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  3. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  4. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press