different between excite vs spur

English

Etymology

From Middle English exciten, from Old French exciter, from Latin excitare (“call out, call forth, arouse, wake up, stimulate”), frequentative of exciere (“call out, arouse excite”), from ex (“out”) + ciere (“call, summon”). See cite and compare to accite, concite, incite.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?k?sa?t/
• Rhymes: -a?t
• Hyphenation: ex?cite

Verb

excite (third-person singular simple present excites, present participle exciting, simple past and past participle excited)

1. (transitive) To stir the emotions of.

2. (transitive) To arouse or bring out (e.g. feelings); to stimulate.
3. (transitive, physics) To cause an electron to move to a higher than normal state; to promote an electron to an outer level.

4. To energize (an electromagnet); to produce a magnetic field in.

Antonyms

• relax, calm

Related terms

• excitement
• excitation

Translations

Further reading

• excite in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• excite in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

French

Verb

excite

1. first-person singular present indicative of exciter
2. third-person singular present indicative of exciter
3. first-person singular present subjunctive of exciter
4. third-person singular present subjunctive of exciter
5. second-person singular imperative of exciter

Latin

Verb

exc?te

1. second-person plural present active imperative of exci?

Portuguese

Verb

excite

1. First-person singular (eu) present subjunctive of excitar
2. Third-person singular (ele, ela, also used with tu and você^?) present subjunctive of excitar
3. Third-person singular (você) affirmative imperative of excitar
4. Third-person singular (você) negative imperative of excitar

Romanian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [eks?t??ite]

Verb

excite

1. third-person singular present subjunctive of excita
2. third-person plural present subjunctive of excita

Spanish

Verb

excite

1. Formal second-person singular (usted) imperative form of excitar.
2. First-person singular (yo) present subjunctive form of excitar.
3. Formal second-person singular (usted) present subjunctive form of excitar.
4. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted^?) present subjunctive form of excitar.

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /sp??/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /sp?/
• Rhymes: -??(?)

Etymology 1

From Middle English spure, spore, from Old English spura, spora, from Proto-Germanic *spurô, from Proto-Indo-European *sper-, *sperw- (“to twitch, push, fidget, be quick”).

Noun

spur (plural spurs)

1. A rigid implement, often roughly y-shaped, that is fixed to one's heel for the purpose of prodding a horse. Often worn by, and emblematic of, the cowboy or the knight.

   Meronyms: rowel, prick

   • 1786, Francis Grose, A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons, page 22:

     Two sorts of spurs seem to have been in use about the time of the Conquest, one called a pryck, having only a single point like the gaffle of a fighting cock; the other consisting of a number of points of considerable length, radiating from and revolving on a center, thence named the rouelle or wheel spur.

2. A jab given with the spurs.
   • 1832, The Atheneum (volume 31, page 493)

     I had hardly said the word, when Kit jumped into the saddle, and gave his horse a whip and a spur — and off it cantered, as if it were in as great a hurry to be married as Kit himself.

3. (figuratively) Anything that inspires or motivates, as a spur does a horse.
4. An appendage or spike pointing rearward, near the foot, for instance that of a rooster.
5. Any protruding part connected at one end, for instance a highway that extends from another highway into a city.
6. Roots, tree roots.
7. (geology) A mountain that shoots from another mountain or range and extends some distance in a lateral direction, or at right angles.
8. A spiked iron worn by seamen upon the bottom of the boot, to enable them to stand upon the carcass of a whale to strip off the blubber.
9. (carpentry) A brace strengthening a post and some connected part, such as a rafter or crossbeam; a strut.
10. (architecture) The short wooden buttress of a post.
11. (architecture) A projection from the round base of a column, occupying the angle of a square plinth upon which the base rests, or bringing the bottom bed of the base to a nearly square form. It is generally carved in leafage.
12. Ergotized rye or other grain.
13. A wall in a fortification that crosses a part of a rampart and joins to an inner wall.
14. (shipbuilding) A piece of timber fixed on the bilgeways before launching, having the upper ends bolted to the vessel's side.
15. (shipbuilding) A curved piece of timber serving as a half to support the deck where a whole beam cannot be placed.
16. (mining) A branch of a vein.
17. (rail transport) A very short branch line of a railway line.
18. (transport) A short branch road of a motorway, freeway or major road.
19. (botany) A short thin side shoot from a branch, especially one that bears fruit or, in conifers, the shoots that bear the leaves.

Derived terms

• spur gear
• spur-leather
• spur-of-the-moment
• spur road

Translations

Verb

spur (third-person singular simple present spurs, present participle spurring, simple past and past participle spurred)

1. (transitive) To prod (especially a horse) on the side or flank, with the intent to urge motion or haste, to gig.
   • 1592, William Shakespeare, Richard III, Act V, Scene III, line 339:

     Draw, archers, draw your arrows to the head! Spur your proud horses hard, and ride in blood; Amaze the welkin with your broken staves!

2. (transitive) To urge or encourage to action, or to a more vigorous pursuit of an object

   Synonyms: incite, stimulate, instigate, impel, drive; see also Thesaurus:incite

   • 1599, William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, Act III, Scene IV, line 4.

     My desire / (More sharp than filed steel) did spur me forth...
3. (transitive) To put spurs on.

4. (intransitive) To press forward; to travel in great haste.

Derived terms

• spur on

Translations

Etymology 2

See sparrow.

Noun

spur (plural spurs)

1. A tern.

Etymology 3

Short for spurious.

Noun

spur (plural spurs)

1. (electronics) A spurious tone, one that interferes with a signal in a circuit and is often masked underneath that signal.

Etymology 4

Noun

spur (plural spurs)

1. The track of an animal, such as an otter; a spoor.

Translations

Etymology 5

Verb

spur (third-person singular simple present spurs, present participle spurring, simple past and past participle spurred)

1. (obsolete, dialectal) Alternative form of speer.
   • 1638, Thomas Heywood, "The Rape of Lucrece. A true Roman Tragedy", in The Dramatic Works of Thomas Heywood, Vol. V, John Pearson, 1874, pages 230 & 231.

   • The Pall Mall Magazine, Vol. 33, 1904, page 435.

Anagrams

• Prus, purs, surp

Middle English

Noun

spur

1. Alternative form of spore

Scots

Alternative forms

• sparra
• spug
• spuggie
• speug

Noun

spur (plural spurs)

1. sparrow

References

• “spur” in the Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries.