Etymologically
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hortor

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈhɔr.tɔr][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈɔr.tor][1]

Forms

hortor (present infinitive hortārī or hortārier, perfect active hortātus sum); first conjugation, deponent[1] Plautus has the archaic infinitive hortārier.[2] Ennius has horitātur.[3]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin horior (“to urge”) + -tō, a frequentative of that verb.[4][5][1] De Vaan thinks it is built on a participle ⟨*hortus⟩ or syncopated from ⟨horitāre⟩, which Ennius has.[3] He derives horior from Proto-Italic *χerj-, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰer-i- (“to enjoy, be excited”), cognate with Oscan herest (“will want”) and Umbrian heries (“will want”).[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus,[3] who has senex in culīnā clāmat, hortātur coquōs: ‘quīn agitis hodiē?’, “the old man shouts in the kitchen and urges on the cooks: ‘get a move on!’”.[4]

Semantic evolution

Hortārī is “to urge on, encourage” someone to action, and with ut, nē or an infinitive “to urge, exhort” to a particular course.[4][2][1] Things can be its subject: Sallust has Catiline say animus, aetās, virtūs vostra mē hortantur, “your spirit, your youth and your courage urge me on”.[4]

Church Latin glosses it “exhort, encourage”.[6]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus: hortātur coquōs.[4][7]
  • 204–169 BC – Ennius has the older form horitātur.[3][7]
  • 86–34 BC – Sallust: animus, aetās, virtūs vostra mē hortantur.[4][7]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To encourage, urge on, cheer.[4][2][1][6]
  2. To urge, exhort, incite (to an action).[4][2][1][6]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ a b c d e 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 e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  6. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  7. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de