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excite: excite: [14] The use of the word excite to convey ‘agitated elation’ is a comparatively recent development, first recorded from the mid 19th century. Before that it was a fairly neutral verb, meaning ‘produce a response, provoke’ (as in the rather formal ‘excite much comment’). It comes, perhaps via Old French exciter, from Latin excitāre ‘call forth, arouse, produce’. This was a variant of exciēre, a compound verb formed from the prefix ex- ‘out’ and ciēre ‘move, call’ (source also of English cite, incite, recite, and solicit).
=> cite, incite, recite, solicit
excitable (adj.): c. 1600, from Late Latin excitabilis "inciting, animating," from excitare "stir up, arouse, awaken, incite" (see excite). Related: Excitably; excitability.
excitation (n.): late 14c., from Old French excitation, from Late Latin excitationem (nominative excitatio), noun of action from past participle stem of excitare "to call out, wake, rouse, stir up" (see excite).
excite (v.): mid-14c., "to move, stir up, instigate," from Old French esciter (12c.) or directly from Latin excitare "rouse, call out, summon forth, produce," frequentative of exciere "call forth, instigate," from ex- "out" (see ex-) + ciere "set in motion, call" (see cite). Of feelings, from late 14c. Of bodily organs or tissues, from 1831. Main modern sense of "emotionally agitate" is first attested 1821.
excited (adj.): 1650s, "magnetically or electrically stimulated;" modern sense of "agitated" attested 1855; past participle adjective from excite. Related: Excitedly.
excitement (n.): early 15c., "encouragement;" c. 1600, "something that tends to excite," from excite + -ment. Meaning "condition of mental and emotional agitation" is from 1846.
exciting (adj.): 1811, "causing disease," present participle adjective excite (v.). Sense of "causing excitement" is from 1826. Related: Excitingly.
over-excite (v.): 1708 (implied in over-excited), from over- + excite. Related: Over-exciting.
over-excitement (n.): 1815, from over- + excitement.