hortative

American  

[hawr-tuh-tiv] / ˈhɔr tə tɪv /

adjective

1. hortatory.

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Other Word Forms

• hortatively
  adverb
• unhortative
  adjective
• unhortatively
  adverb

Etymology

Origin of hortative

1600–10; < Latin hortātīvus, equivalent to hortāt ( us ), past participle of hortārī to incite to action, frequentative of horīrī to encourage (akin to yearn ) + -īvus -ive

Explanation

Think your parents are too lax about recycling? It might be time to deliver an impassioned, hortative speech about protecting the environment. Hortative language urges the audience to take action. Anything hortative aims to encourage, urge on, or call to action. This word is most commonly used in the context of rhetoric and debate. For example, your English teacher might ask you to write a hortative essay on an issue about which you care deeply. Hortative, like the word exhort, derives from the Latin verb horari, "to urge."

Example Sentences

Most of these can as well be spared as those other "moods, Interrogative, Optative, Promissive, Hortative, Precative, &c."

From The Grammar of English Grammars by Brown, Goold

Hortative, hort′a-tiv, adj. inciting: encouraging: giving advice—also Hort′atory.—n.

From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 2 of 4: E-M) by Various