Commove is a verb meaning to move violently or agitate, or to rouse intense feeling in someone. Although Samuel Johnson declared it 'not in use', the term has been used by writers since Chaucer.
Commove es un verbo que significa mover violentamente o agitar, o provocar una intensa emoción en alguien. Aunque Samuel Johnson lo declaró "no en uso", el término ha sido utilizado por escritores desde Chaucer.
| Word | commove |
|---|---|
| Date | November 11, 2007 |
| Type | verb |
| Syllables | kuh-MOOV |
| Etymology | Eighteenth-century English lexicographer Samuel Johnson declared "commove" as being "not in use," but the word had not really disappeared from the language; it was simply, at that time, popular primarily with Scottish writers. The 14th-century poet Geoffrey Chaucer is credited with the first use of "commove," and many writers since have used the word, including Sir Walter Scott and George Eliot. Though not so common today, "commove" does occasionally pop up (to the chagrin of Johnsonians). "Market values tend to commove over time," read one such recent example, which appeared in the February 2007 issue of The Journal of Banking and Finance. *Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence. |
| Examples | "He who has seen the sea commoved with a great hurricane, thinks of it very differently from him who has seen it only in a calm." (R.L. Stevenson, The Silverado Squatters) |
| Definition | 1 : to move violently : agitate 2 : to rouse intense feeling in : excite to passion |
Tags: wordoftheday::verb
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