exhort

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The Word of the Day for March 29:

exhort   \ig-ZORT\   verb
     : to incite by argument or advice : urge strongly

Example sentence:
     The mayoral candidate exhorted the crowd to trust him and 
to prove their support for his candidacy on election day.

Did you know?
     "Exhort" is a 15th-century coinage. It derives from the 
Latin verb "hortari," meaning "to incite," and it often implies 
the ardent urging or admonishing of an orator or preacher.  
People in the 16th century apparently liked the root "-hort," 
but they couldn't resist fiddling around with different prefixes 
to create other words similar in meaning to "exhort." They came 
up with "adhort" and "dehort." "Adhort" was short-lived and 
became obsolete after the 17th century. "Dehort" was similar 
to "exhort" and "adhort" but with a more specific meaning of "to 
dissuade." It had a better run than "adhort," being used well 
into the late 19th century, but it is now considered archaic.