picturepeople #30

exercise (vt): “to cause anxiety, alarm, or indignation”

– from Latin ex-ercere

– lit. “remove restraint”

– from ex- “off” + arcere “keep away, prevent, enclose”

– original sense may have been leading s.th. or s.o. from an enclosed space into
the open to physical activity, e.g. driving farm animals to the field to plow

– compare also exercitium, “spiritual meditation”