Word of the Day

: November 11, 2007

commove

verb kuh-MOOV

What It Means

1 : to move violently : agitate

2 : to rouse intense feeling in : excite to passion

commove in Context

"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)

Did You Know?

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.