This verb primarily means to stir up or disturb, originally used for agitating mud or clay in water, causing turbid streams to burst forth. From physical stirring it extended to jostling in crowds and then to inner emotional disturbance or trouble. The New Testament famously uses a variant in Martha's complaint that she is troubled or distracted by many things. Later authors used it for revelry or celebration—perhaps originally 'stirring things up' at parties. The word captured the transition from physical churning to psychological agitation, a common metaphorical path in Greek where physical disturbance modeled mental or emotional states.