excio

Forms

exciō (present infinitive excīre, perfect active excīvī or exciī, supine excitum or excītum); fourth conjugation^[1] There is also a second-conjugation form excieō, as in Accius and Plautus.^[2][3] In the participle excitus the ⟨i⟩ is as often long as short.^[4]

Etymology

It is formed from ex- (“out”) and cieō (“to set in motion”), as the expanded commentary of Servius notes.^[2][3] De Vaan reconstructs for ⟨cieō⟩ an aorist Proto-Indo-European *(ḱ)ei(h₂)- (“to start to move”), cognate with Ancient Greek ἔκιε (ékie, “started to move”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has “how you have drawn tears from me!” in the Cistellaria.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is to rouse or stir, as Lucretius' seeds stirred by the goads of Venus, and to rouse from sleep, as Sallust's men woken by a strange and terrible sound.^[2][4][1] It is to call out or summon, as Livy's heralds who called out the Albans first, and to call up ghosts, as Virgil's spells that raise souls from the depths of their tombs.^[2][4][1] It is to stir into action, as the Bellum Hispaniense of Pompey roused by his brother's letters, and to call forth or give rise to, as Plautus' tears.^[2][1]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of tears called forth.^[2][6]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius of seeds stirred.^[2][6]
• 86–34 BC – Sallust of men roused from sleep.^[2][6]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of raising the dead.^[2][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To rouse, stir; to wake.^[2][4][1]
2. To call out, summon; to call up (ghosts).^[2][4][1]
3. To stir into action;^[2][1] to frighten.^[1]
4. To give rise to, call forth.^[2][1]

Word family

• excitō

Related words

• acciō
• cieō
• concieō

References

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