exhortatio

Forms

exhortātiō f (genitive exhortātiōnis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin exhortor (“to encourage”) + -tiō.^[2][3] exhortor is a compound of hortor (“to urge”), which de Vaan takes as a frequentative of horior (“to urge”), found in Ennius; he traces that verb to Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰer-i- (“to enjoy, be excited”).^[4][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Cicero.^[5] The OLD's earliest quotation is from Plancus writing to Cicero: he has done everything he took on at Cicero's urging.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is the act of admonishing or encouraging, exhortation, and Lewis & Short call it mostly post-Augustan and not in Cicero himself.^[2][6] Quintilian reports that Rutilius and Celsus counted it among the figures of speech.^[7] It is also an inducement: Ulpian writes of making men good by the encouragement of rewards.^[2] Church Latin glosses it exhortation, encouragement.^[8] English exhortation comes from it, partly through Old French, from the late 14th century.^[3]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Plancus, writing to Cicero, of his encouragement.^[2][6][5]
• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian on it as a figure of speech.^[7][5]
• before 223 AD – Ulpian of the inducement of rewards.^[2][5]
• late 14th century – English exhortation.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. Exhortation, encouragement, admonition.^[2][6][1][8]
2. An inducement.^[2]

Related words

• exhortor
• hortor

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
8. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson