instigatio

Forms

instīgātiō f (genitive instīgātiōnis); third declension^[1][2]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin instīgō (“to urge on, incite”) + -tiō.^[1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Rhetorica ad Herennium, which speaks of rousing the feelings of an audience.^[1][4][5]

Semantic evolution

From the rousing of listeners in rhetoric it came to mean prompting someone to an act, usually a bad one: the jurist Gaius speaks of people corrupted by the instigations of a stepmother.^[1][5] Lactantius and Augustine use the plural of the incitements of others.^[2][6] From Augustine on, the plural is common.^[3]

Medieval Latin kept the senses “incitement, provocation”,^[7] often of the Devil's prompting.^[8] English borrowed it in the early 15th century as instigation, from Old French and directly from Latin.^[9]

Timeline

• 86/82 BC – The Rhetorica ad Herennium speaks of arousing an audience.^[1][4]
• 140–180 AD – Gaius uses it of a stepmother's instigations.^[1][5]
• c. 250–317 AD – Lactantius writes of the instigations of robbers.^[2][6]
• before 802 – Alcuin writes of the instigation of an uproar.^[8]
• early 15th century – English borrows it as instigation.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. The rousing or stirring up (of feelings, of an audience).^[1][2][5]
2. Incitement, instigation, prompting (to an act).^[1][2][5]
3. (Medieval Latin) Provocation; the prompting of the Devil.^[7][8]

Related words

• instīgō
• English instigation

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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d e Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ a b c Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com