Word of the Day

Sunday, December 05, 2004

exhort

\ig-ZORT\ , transitive verb;

To incite by words or advice; to urge strongly; hence, to advise, warn, or caution.

intransitive verb:

To make urgent appeal; to give warning or advice.

Quotes:

He was constantly reminding us of our failures and exhorting us to do, and to be, better.

-- Ronald Steel, In Love With Night

How many children are exhorted to taste a new food (which they have decided is bad on sight) and even after a taste continue to protest?

-- Richard Pillsbury, No Foreign Food

Be doubly cautious in business generally, he exhorted his brothers.

-- Niall Ferguson, The House of Rothschild: Money's Prophets, 1798-1848

Origin:

Exhort derives from Latin exhortari, "to encourage strongly," from ex-, intensive prefix + hortari, "to incite, to encourage."