percitus Latin · revision 36953

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=derivation|attested=c. 250–184 BC, Plautus|origins=la cieō}}

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''percitus''' (feminine percita, neuter percitum); first/second-declension adjective^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ Used as an adjective, it is the past participle [[der|la|percieō|t=to set in motion, stir up]],^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)^(Conte 2010) and that verb is a compound of [[m|la|per-|t=through, thoroughly]] and [[m|la|cieō|t=to set in motion, rouse]].^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ As a participle it appears in Plautus, in a line meaning “so that she won't think you did it stirred by love” (''amōris causā percitum'').^(OLD 2012) Köbler dates the word from Terence,^(Köbler 2010) who has ''incrēdibilī rē atque atrōcī percitus'', “roused by an unbelievable and dreadful thing”.^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ In the sense of the verb it was used of people stirred by feelings: Lucretius speaks of a heat roused to motion,^(OLD 2012) and Livy of a man stirred by anger.^(OLD 2012) The OLD records it also as an adjective of character, “excitable, turbulent”,^(OLD 2012) and Conte cites Sallust's ''Histories'' and Livy for a person of irritable temper.^(Conte 2010) In Ecclesiastical Latin it means aroused or driven.^(Stelten 1995)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses the participle of being stirred by love.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 190–159 BC – Terence uses it of a man roused by a dreadful event.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it of heat set in motion.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 86–34 BC – Sallust uses it of an irritable character.^(Conte 2010)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it of anger and of temper.^(OLD 2012)^(Conte 2010)^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Adjective===

+ # Roused, stirred up, [[m|en|excited]] (by a feeling or event).^(OLD 2012)^(Stelten 1995)

+ # Of character: [[m|en|excitable]], irritable, turbulent.^(OLD 2012)^(Conte 2010)

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[cieō]]

+ * [[incitus#1]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}