English
agitate
Agitate comes from Middle English agitat ‘set in motion’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *h₂eǵ-.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₂eǵ-root as named · steps between not traced
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500agitat‘set in motion’
- Englishearliest quotation 1790agitate
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₂eǵ-root as named · steps between not traced
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500agitat‘set in motion’
- Englishearliest quotation 1790agitate
Earliest quotation: 1790, Mary Wollstonecraft: “Your speech at the time a bill for the…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *h₂eǵ-
act, action, active, actual, suggest, activity, agency, actor, agent, strategy, essay, register, agenda, acre, gesture, digest, congestion, ambiguous, activate, agony, assay, squat, ambiguity, belligerent, axiom, agrarian, antagonist, ingestion, agile, progesterone, ingest, radium, agility, cogent, gestation, agonist, actuator, antagonism, samaj, actuation, 151 more
Today it means
verb To disturb or excite; to perturb or stir up (a person).
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *h₂eǵ- / agitate