excitationn.

c1400 Mandeville's Trav. (Roxb.) xxxi. 139 Thurgh comforth of þaire wordes and þe excitacioun of þaim, we schrafe vs clene and herd messe.

1462 King Edward IV in H. Ellis Orig. Lett. Eng. Hist. ii. 41 I. 127 The malicious counseyle and exitacion of Margaret his wife.

1490 Caxton's Blanchardyn & Eglantine (1962) 69 The..impetuous excitacions, that often tymes thy messangers made vnto me.

1548 Hall's Vnion: Henry VI f. xcix A man, that..confessed, that he was there by myne excitacion.

1587 A. Fleming et al. Holinshed's Chron. (new ed.) III. Contin. 1413/1 Bookes conteining false, seditious, and slanderous matter..to the excitation of insurrection.

1615 T. Jackson Iustifying Faith 343 The excitation of Gods gifts in vs, whereby we are vnited to Christ.

1686 J. Scott Christian Life: Pt. II II. vii. 639 His excitation of the graces of Prayer in us is called his making Intercession for us.

1788 V. Knox Winter Evenings xlv The alternate excitation of hope and fear is attended with considerable delight.

a1856 W. Hamilton Lect. Metaphysics (1859) II. xxx. 214 The ceaseless excitation of the mind to new knowledge.

1538 Prymer in Eng. after Vse of Sarum sig. Kj Reioyce, bycause he ascended..into heuyn agayne By his propre exitacyon.

?1541 R. Copland Formularie of Helpes of Woundes & Sores in Guy de Chauliac's Questyonary Cyrurgyens sig. Tiv The helpes for woundes composed with corrupte sores are they that requyre excytacyon.

1626 F. Bacon Sylua Syluarum §330 The Second [means to induce Putrefaction] is by Inuitation or Excitation; as when a Rotten Apple lieth close to another Apple that is Sound.

1832 D. Brewster Lett. Nat. Magic xiii. 331 Highly expansive elements..called into tremendous action by the excitation of heat.

1862 H. Spencer First Princ. ii. x. §90. 301 The order of excitation is from muscles that are small..to those which are larger.

1866 T. H. Huxley Lessons Elem. Physiol. (1872) ix. 222 The excitation of the retina proper.

1914 O. W. Richardson Electron Theory of Matter xx. 532 When the green mercury line is used for excitation it is found that..the fluorescent lines are made up of fine lines having a structure similar to the..absorption lines covered by the exciting spectrum.

1922 A. D. Udden tr. N. Bohr Theory of Spectra ii. ii. 34 Experiments on the excitation of spectral lines and production of ionization by electron bombardment.

1963 R. W. Ditchburn Light (ed. 2) xvii. 657 (heading) Excitation of spectra by slow electrons.

1921 Chem. Abstr. 15 1854 The excitation of an atom by electron impact consists in the removal of an electron from a stationary orbit to one with a higher quantum number.

1923 Chem. Abstr. 17 683 Their excitation potentials were not accurately det[ermine]d.

1931 Nature 30 May 838/1 An accurate experimental determination of excitation energy by electron impact in helium.

1951 L. H. Snyder in Frontiers in Medicine (N.Y. Acad. Med.) 52 Excitation is the raising of an electron in a molecule or atom to a state of higher energy.

1958 W. K. Mansfield Elem. Nucl. Physics i. 7 An excited state is one in which energy is given to the atom, either by collisions, or by absorption of electromagnetic radiant energy, permitting the electron to revolve in an empty outer orbit. The energy required to produce this change is known as the excitation energy.

1968 M. S. Livingston Particle Physics x. 170 One type is the excitation function which is a plot of the yeild of products from a particle interaction as a function of bombarding energy.