Impetus is the force or motive that drives something forward. Give fresh impetus, the impetus for change, lose impetus.
It is nearly always used of movements and campaigns rather than of objects. The Latin means a rushing upon, and in old physics impetus was the name for what we now call momentum.
1nounimpetusThe force or motive that drives something forward.
“The accident gave new impetus to the campaign for a safer crossing.”
impetus is a force.
Latin impetus means a rushing upon, from impetere, to attack, from in plus petere, to seek.
Proto-Indo-European
*peth₂-
Latin
impetus — a rushing upon, an attack, assault, onset
English, today
impetus
Built from
Borrowed from Latin impetus (“a rushing upon, an attack, assault, onset”), from impetō (“to rush upon, attack”), from in- (“upon”) + petō (“to seek, fall upon”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA