The Word of the Day

hortative \HOR-tuh-tiv\ adjective : giving exhortation : advisory

Example sentence: Amy suspected that her hortative letter to her son about the values of hard work and education would be ignored in the swirl of freshman partying, but she sent it anyway.

Did you know? "We give nothing so freely as advice," observed French writer Duc de La Rochefoucauld in 1665. "Hortative" and "exhort" (meaning "to urge earnestly") are two words that testify to our eagerness to counsel others. Both trace to the Latin "hortari," meaning "to urge." "Hortative" has been used as both a noun (meaning "an advisory comment") and as an adjective since the 17th century. The noun is now uncommon, but it makes an appearance now and then, as in a 1992 article in The New York Times : "Facing directly into the camera, Mr. [Ross] Perot chronicled what he called the decline and potential fall of the American economy, keeping up a steady stream of hortatives as he went along. 'Let's just raise the hood and go to work!' he said. 'Let's just link arms and go do it!'"