Meaning

noun a communication intended to urge or persuade the recipients to take some action

noun the act of exhorting; an earnest attempt at persuasion

originFrom Middle English exhortacioun, from Old French exhortacion, from Latin exhortātiōnem, accusative singular of exhortātiō (“encouraging; exhortation”), from exhortor (“to encourage, exhort”), from ex (“out of, from”) + hortor (“encourage”). By surface analysis, exhort + -ation.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0