motivate

Motivate comes from motive, itself from Late Latin mōtīvum, tied to Latin moveō, "to move," plus the verb-forming suffix -ate, borrowed from Latin -ātus. It entered English essentially as motive + -ate, echoing the French motiver.

The root idea was physical movement in Latin moveō, which narrowed into mōtīvum, a reason that moves someone to act, and then English motive. Adding -ate turned that noun into a verb: to motivate is to supply the moving reason.

It shares its Latin root moveō with English motive, since motivate is literally built from that word plus -ate.