'Commotion' is Latin for 'violent stirring' — an intensified form of 'movere' (to move).
A state of confused and noisy disturbance; civil unrest or insurrection; agitation or turbulence.
From Old French 'commotion,' from Latin 'commōtiō' (violent movement, agitation, tumult, emotional disturbance), from 'commovēre' (to move together, to stir up violently, to agitate), from 'com-' (together, with — here functioning as an intensifier) + 'movēre' (to move, to set in motion), from PIE *mewh₁- (to push, to move). The prefix 'com-' here functions as an intensifier — to move violently, to move everything at once, to disturb completely. Latin 'movēre' is extraordinarily productive in English: 'move,' 'motion,' 'motive,' 'motor,' 'moment,' 'emotion,' 'promotion,' 'remote,' and 'mob' (from 'mobile vulgus,' the fickle crowd) all descend from it. The word entered English in the 14th century
In medical Latin, 'commotio cerebri' (commotion of the brain) is the technical term for a concussion. The word 'concussion' itself comes from Latin 'concutere' (to shake violently), but doctors also used 'commotio' — a shaking, a violent moving-together of the brain inside the skull. This medical usage preserves the original Latin sense of violent, disruptive motion.
Words closest in meaning, ranked by similarity