Etymology- Exercise

When I first selected exercise as one of my words for this assignment I was only thinking about the physical term and completely forgot about the other meanings this word has. In the mid 14th century the term exercise was coined meaning "a condition of being in active operation. To keep busy or drive on. Original sense may have been driving farm animals to the field to plow; meaning "physical activity" in the late 14 century,the term started being used as a way of saying "to make use of;" also in regard to mental and spiritual training. This is one of those words that has many different uses that all seemed to come out around the same time and in the same region. In some way the term exercise always deals with using our physical abilities to accomplish a set goal.