An emotional utterance that seeks to move an audience to a similar feeling. See also: pathos.
Etymology:
From the Latin, "awakening, arousing"Examples:
- "He that outlives this day and comes safe home,
Will stand a tiptoe when this day is named,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian,
He that shall live this day and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say, 'Tomorrow is Saint Crispian.'
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars,
And say, 'These wounds I had on Crispian's day.'
Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,
But he'll remember with advantages
What feats he did that day. Then shall our names,
Familiar in his mouth as household words,
Harry the King, Belford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester,
Be in their flowing cups freshly remembered.
This story shall the good man teach his son:
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he today that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile
This day shall gentle his condition:
And gentlemen in England, now abed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whilst any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispian's day."
(William Shakespeare, Henry V, IV.3)
- "To the People of the Phillipines:
I have returned. By the grace of Almighty God our forces stand again on Philippine soil--soil consecrated in the blood of our two peoples. We have come, dedicated and committed, to the task of destroying every vestige of enemy control over your daily lives, and of restoring, upon a foundation of indestructible, strength, the liberties of your people."
(Douglas MacArthur, Radio Message from the Leyte Beachhead, 1944)
Pronunciation: EX-sus-TA-see-o