exsuscito

Forms

exsuscitō (present infinitive exsuscitāre, perfect active exsuscitāvī, supine exsuscitātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin ex- + suscitō (“to rouse”).^[2][1][3] De Vaan lists the verb it is built on among the derivatives of cieō (“to set in motion, stir”), which he traces to Proto-Indo-European *(ḱ)ei(h₂)- (“to start to move”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it from Plautus on.^[3] In the Curculio a character calls for a doorkeeper to be woken up: exsuscitāte vostram hūc custōdem mihi.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Its basic sense is to rouse from sleep: Accius uses it, and Cicero tells someone that cock-crow wakes him.^[2][6] It was used of kindling a fire, as of fanning flames with one's breath in Ovid, and in Livy of a small fire that might stir up a great blaze.^[2][5] Figuratively it means to rouse to activity or emotion: for Cicero, care stirs up the mind, and the Rhetorica ad Herennium speaks of a man roused by anger.^[2][5] Turpilius uses it of calling up a feeling, horror.^[2]

In the Old Latin Bible it means to raise the dead.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of waking someone.^[5][3][7]
• 170–c. 90 BC – Accius uses it of rousing a sleeper.^[2][7]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of being woken by cock-crow and of rousing the mind.^[5][6][7]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it of a fire that may grow into a blaze.^[5][7]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of fanning flames.^[2][7]
• after 220 AD – The Old Latin Bible uses it of raising the dead.^[6][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To rouse from sleep, awaken.^[2][5]
2. To kindle (a fire).^[2][5]
3. To rouse to activity or emotion, stimulate, excite; to evoke (a feeling).^[2][5]
4. (Late Latin) To raise from the dead.^[6]

Word family

• exsuscitātiō

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
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 e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de