What does hortative mean?
A hortative is an expression intended to encourage, urge, or command someone to act. The adjective hortative is chiefly formal and literary: a hortative speech may offer reassurance and resolve, while a hortative construction in grammar expresses encouragement or exhortation. In its best-known linguistic use, the term refers to a form or mood associated with expressions such as “let us begin” or “come here.” As a noun, a hortative is an act of encouragement or an utterance that urges its audience forward. The word is useful in discussions of rhetoric, persuasion, and grammar because it distinguishes language aimed at motivating action from language that merely reports facts. Its meaning is stronger and more deliberate than a general plea and more openly persuasive than a neutral request, although hortative forms can also carry the force of a command.
Expressing an exhortation, encouragement, or urgent appeal to action.
"The minister delivered a hortative call for national unity."
Formal and literary in general prose; common in technical discussions of grammar, rhetoric, and persuasion.
An exhortation or encouraging utterance, especially a grammatical form or construction intended to prompt action.
""Let us try again" functions as a hortative rather than a simple statement."
In grammar, the noun may denote a mood, construction, particle, or verb form expressing exhortation.
The plural is used for distinct acts, utterances, or grammatical elements that exhort or encourage action.
"The speech closed with several hortatives urging the audience to cooperate."
Hortatives turn a wish into an invitation: they do not merely describe the world, but urge the listener to act.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does hortative come from?
Hortative comes from Latin hortari, meaning “to exhort” or “to urge,” with the related adjective hortativus meaning “exhortative” or “encouraging.” English borrowed the word in the 17th century, when hortative was used for persuasive or encouraging language. It shares its Latin root with exhort, exhortation, hortatory, and exhortative, all of which express related ideas of urging or encouragement.
Related word forms
How hortative is actually used
The adjective is formal and literary in ordinary use, though it is also encountered in discussions of rhetoric and grammar. In linguistics, hortative may refer to an exhortative construction, mood, particle, or verb form.
Easily confused with hortative
Hortative commonly describes language that urges action, whereas hortatory is chiefly a formal adjective meaning exhortative and is also used as a noun for an exhortation.