Etymologically
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incitus

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Forms

incitus (feminine incita, neuter incitum)[1][2]

Etymology

It is from Latin *incieō, its participle, a compound of in- and cieō (“to set in motion”).[1][3] De Vaan traces cieō to Proto-Italic *ki-eje-, with the participle *kito- (“stirred”), and to Proto-Indo-European *(ḱ)ei(h₂)- (“to start to move”).[4] Cognate with Ancient Greek ἔκιε (ékie, “started to move”) and κίνυμαι (kínumai, “to be moved”).[4] A late grammarian notes that it could be pronounced with a short or a long ⟨i⟩.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan records it from Lucretius onward,[4][5] who writes of seas that boil, graviter spīrantibus incita flābrīs, “driven by violently blowing winds”.[1]

Semantic evolution

It is a poetic word:[2][3] the TLL lists it in Lucretius, Virgil, Seneca and Valerius Flaccus, perhaps also in Accius.[3] It means set in rapid or violent motion, rushing, headlong: Lucretius uses it of the force of the wind, Cicero's verse of swift dolphins, Virgil of a spear, and Silius Italicus of a stone.[2][1] It also means roused or excited in feeling.[1]

Timeline

  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it of wind and stormy seas.[1][2][5]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero's verse has incitī atque alacrēs dēlphīnī.[2][5]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of a spear.[2][5]
  • 25–101 AD – Silius Italicus uses it of a stone.[2][5]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Set in rapid or violent motion; swift, rushing, headlong.[1][2]
  2. Stirred, roused, excited.[1]

Usage notes

A separate incitus “unmoved”, from the negative in- and citus, is explained by Isidore: game pieces that cannot be moved are called incitī, and so are needy people with no hope of getting further.[2][3] From it comes the feminine plural incitae “checkmate”, recorded from Plautus.[4][2] Pliny the Elder also has a fourth-declension noun incitus, “rapid motion”, in adsiduō mundī incitū.[2][3]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c d 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de