Re: Petascale computing

[Adam Beneschan <adam@irvine.com>]

On Wednesday, April 25, 2012 5:06:22 AM UTC-7, Stephen Leake wrote:
> Jerry writes:
> 
> > incite |inˈsīt|
> > verb [ with obj. ]
> > encourage or stir up (violent or unlawful behavior).
> > • urge or persuade (someone) to act in a violent or unlawful way.
> 
> What dictionary is that from?
> 
> OED (http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/93523?redirectedFrom=incite#eid)
> 
> says:
> 
>  a. trans. To urge or spur on; to stir up, animate, instigate, stimulate. Const. to do something; to or unto some action.
> 
> 
> ie _any_ action, not just negative ones. None of the OED definitions
> give negative connotations.

In Merriam-Webster Online, none of the definitions say that the verb has negative connotations, but all of the examples do.  The same seems to hold everywhere else I've looked (e.g. Wiktionary).  So I suspect that, regardless of the definition, in practice the word just isn't used except with negative connotations.  If someone can find an example from literature (preferably from the last couple centuries) where "incite" is used in a more positive way, it might be helpful.

                    -- Adam