incitar

Forms

incitar (first-person singular present incito, first-person singular preterite incitei, past participle incitado)^[1] Older spellings were ençitar (14th century), emçitar and inçitar (15th century); incitar is recorded in 1525.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin incitō (“to set in rapid motion; to rouse, urge on”), a learned word.^[2][3][1][4] The Latin verb is in- and citō (“to set in motion”), the frequentative of cieō (“to move, stir up”).^[5][6] Wiktionary traces the Latin verb through *kieō to Proto-Indo-European *keyh₂- (“to move”).^[1]

The same Latin verb was borrowed as Spanish incitar, French inciter (earlier Old French enciter, late 12th century) and Italian incitare.^[7][6][1] The REW records popular outcomes of it only in a few northern Italian dialects.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the verb to the 14th century, in the form ençitar, from the slips of the medieval Portuguese index.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Cardoso (1569) and Barbosa (1611) gloss it with Latin incito and commoveo;^[9][10] Barbosa's example is incitare ad scribendum “to urge to write”.^[9][10] Morais (1813) gives “to excite, sting, prick, goad”, and Vieira (1871–1874) quotes the Palmeirim de Inglaterra of Francisco de Moraes and a sonnet of Camões.^[11][12] Besides urging someone on, the verb means to provoke a person or set a dog on, to arouse a feeling, and as a reflexive to grow angry.^[2][13]

Timeline

• 14th century – ençitar.^[2]
• 15th century – emçitar and inçitar.^[2]
• 1525 – first record of the spelling incitar.^[2]
• 1569 – Cardoso enters incitar.^[9]
• 1611 – Barbosa: incitare ad scribendum.^[10]
• 1813 – Morais: “to excite, goad”.^[11]

Meanings

Verb

1. To urge or spur someone on to do something; to incite, instigate, encourage (instigar): Os colegas incitaram-no a concorrer.^[2][4][1]
2. To stir up a feeling or reaction; to excite, inflame;^[2][13] (reflexive) to become excited.^[2][13]
3. To provoke or challenge someone; to set on a dog, açular.^[2][14][15]
4. To bring about, give rise to, arouse: a notícia incitou a revolta.^[2][13]
5. (reflexive) To grow angry, lose one's temper.^[2][16]

Related words

• incitação
• incitamento
• incitador
• excitar
• citar
• Latin incitō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. incitar
3. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. incitar
4. ^ a b Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. incitar
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. incito
6. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. inciter
7. ^ Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. incitar
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 4356
9. ^ a b c Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. incitar
10. ^ a b c Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. incitar
11. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 143
12. ^ Vieira, Frei Domingos (1871–1874), Grande Diccionario Portuguez ou Thesouro da lingua portugueza, 5 vols., Porto: Ernesto Chardron e Bartholomeu H. de Moraes, p. 3, 1063
13. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. incitar
14. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. incitar
15. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 5170
16. ^ Michaelis: Moderno Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, São Paulo: Melhoramentos (online as Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa, https://michaelis.uol.com.br), p. s.v. incitar