excita

Forms

excita (third-person singular present excită, past participle excitat, third-person subjunctive excite) 1st conjugation^[1] Until the early 20th century the verb was often spelled escita: „Pot în tine visarea şi cântul să-l escite” “they can stir dreaming and song in you” (Eminescu).^[2][3] DELR also records an obsolete variant exita.^[3] The first person singular present is excit;^[4][5][2] Marcu and Maneca also give excitez, and the DLR quotes excitează.^[4][5][2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French exciter, a learned word of the 19th century.^{[3][4][6][7][1]} DELR, DEX and MDA2 name the Latin verb excitō as a second source, and Wiktionary names French alone.^[3][4][6][1]

The Latin verb meant “to bring out, call; to rouse, provoke, set in motion”;^[3] DELR derives it from exciō (“to bring out, rouse”), from cieō (“to set in motion”).^[3] The DHLF analyses it as ex- and citō, the frequentative of the same verb.^[8] French borrowed it in the late 12th century, first as esciter “to awaken”.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR's first record is the spelling escita in the works of Timotei Cipariu, 1847–1848.^[3] MDA2's is from Iuliu Barasch in 1853, where the sight of grand scenes “excites” lofty feelings in the onlooker's heart.^[6][2]

Semantic evolution

The DLR's earliest quotations, from medical writers of the 1850s such as Fătu and Barasch, use the word for stimulating the skin, glands and organs, and for stirring a feeling or a sensation.^[2] In 1859 the press wrote that a hymn had “excited” great enthusiasm in the Romanian public.^[2] Eminescu and Caragiale use it for urging someone on and for irritating, a sense DELR now labels obsolete.^[2][3] Șăineanu's dictionary of 1929 gives the three senses of the time: to provoke a feeling, to spur on (a excita la muncă “to spur on to work”) and to stir up (coffee “excites” the nervous system).^[9]

The sexual sense, to arouse desire, is in Alexi's dictionary and in the novels of Camil Petrescu and George Călinescu.^[2] MDA2 lists it, with the reflexive “to feel sexual desire”, beside the older senses.^[6] Electrical engineering and physics added the technical senses: to produce a magnetic field in an electric machine and to raise an atom or a molecule to a higher energy state.^[3][4] The family is large and mostly French: excitație (1851), excitabil (1862), excitant (1868) and supraexcita (1883), formed after French surexciter.^[3]

Timeline

• 1847–1848 – escita in Timotei Cipariu, the first record.^[3]
• 1851 – the noun excitație in Fătu.^[3]
• 1853 – escita “to stir (feelings)” in Iuliu Barasch.^[6][2]
• 1859 – a hymn “excites” enthusiasm in the newspaper Dâmbovița.^[2]
• 1862 – excitabil “excitable” in Pontbriant's dictionary.^[3]
• 1868 – excitant in Curierul de Iași.^[3]
• 1883 – supraexcita “to overexcite”.^[3]
• 1910 – autoexcita in the technical sense.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. (physiology) To make a cell, tissue or organ start working, by physical, chemical or biological means; to stimulate.^[4][6]
2. To stir up, incite, provoke;^[4][6] (reflexive) to get worked up.^[4][6]
3. To provoke or arouse a sensation or a feeling: Povestea i-a excitat curiozitatea.^[4][2]
4. To arouse sexually;^{[6][3][10][1]} (reflexive) to become sexually aroused.^{[6][3][10][1]}
5. (dated) To urge on, encourage: a excita la muncă.^[3][9]
6. (electrical engineering) To produce a magnetic field in an electric machine or apparatus;^[4][7] (physics) to give extra energy to a physical system.^[4][7]

Word family

• autoexcita
• excitabil
• excitabilitate
• excitant
• excitație
• hiperexcitabilitate
• supraexcita
• dezexcita

Related words

• French exciter
• Latin excitō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. excita
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2011–), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române (DELR), vol. I: A–B (2011), vol. II: C (2015–2018), București: Editura Academiei Române; continued online at delr.lingv.ro, p. s.v. excita
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 368
5. ^ a b Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. excita
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 852
7. ^ a b c Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. excita
8. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 236
10. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. excita