"Motive" is a word in LAW AND LEGAL, ENGLISH

The inducement, cause, or reason why a thing is done. An act legal ln itself, and which violates no right, is not actionable on account of the motive which actuated lt. Chatfield v. wilson, 5 Am. Law Reg. (O. S.) 528

To prompt or incite by a motive or motives; to move.

Causing motion; having power to move, or tending to move;
as, a motive argument; motive power.

That which moves; a mover.

That which incites to action; anything prompting or
exciting to choise, or moving the will; cause; reason; inducement;
object.

The theme or subject; a leading phrase or passage which is
reproduced and varied through the course of a comor a movement; a short
figure, or melodic germ, out of which a whole movement is develpoed.
See also Leading motive, under Leading.

That which produces conception, invention, or creation in
the mind of the artist in undertaking his subject; the guiding or
controlling idea manifested in a work of art, or any part of one.