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exhortor

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɛkˈsɔr.tɔr][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [eɡˈzɔr.tor][1]

Forms

exhortor (present infinitive exhortārī, perfect active exhortātus sum); first conjugation, deponent[1] An active form exhortō also occurs.[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is from Latin ex- + hortor (“to urge, encourage”).[2][1][4] Etymonline traces hortor to Proto-Indo-European *gʰer- (“to like, want”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL dates it from Virgil.[4] In the OLD's earliest quotation, from the Aeneid, riders urge on their horses.[2][6]

Semantic evolution

Lewis & Short call it poetic and post-Augustan prose: Ovid has it of encouraging fearful people.[3] Seneca uses it of fostering virtues, as he would lash vices.[2] Besides the deponent there is an active ⟨exhortō⟩, as in Petronius, and Augustine and Apuleius have passive forms.[2][3][4] Manuscripts of the Bible and late writers spell it ⟨exort-⟩.[4] English exhort comes from it, around 1400, partly through Old French.[5]

Timeline

  • 70–19 BC – Virgil of urging on horses.[2][4][6]
  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid of encouraging the fearful.[3][6]
  • 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca of fostering virtues.[2][6]
  • before 66 AD – Petronius has the active form.[3][6]
  • c. 1400 – English exhort is formed from it.[5]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To encourage, urge on, incite; to exhort.[2][3][1]
  2. To foster virtues and the like.[2]

Word family

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  5. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de