exercitation

English

Etymology

From Latin exercitatio, from exercitare, intensive, from exercere (“to exercise”).

Noun

exercitation (countable and uncountable, plural exercitations)

1. (rare or obsolete) The exercise or exertion of some power, responsibility, faculty etc.
   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 12, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:

     To Crates and Dicæarchus it seemed that there was none at all; […] To Plato, that it was a substance moving of it selfe: To Thales, a Nature without rest; To Asclepiades, an exercitation of the senses […].

   • 1901, John Gibson Lockhart, Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Volume I (of 10):

     This was at first to have taken place alternately at each other's houses, but we soon discovered that my friend's resolution was inadequate to severing him from his couch at the early hour fixed for this exercitation.

   • 1890, Various, Punch, Or The London Charivari, Vol. 99, October 25:

     Mens sana in corpore sano, which being translated means, mens—or perhaps I should say, men—should incorporate bodily exercise with mental exercitation.

   • 1855, Charles Kingsley, Westward Ho!:

     Come up, sir, and show me your exercitation.

Anagrams

• reexcitation