Origin and history of impetuous

early 15c., impetous "rapid movement, rush;" 1640s, with modern spelling, "force with which a body moves, driving force," from Latin impetus "an attack, assault; rapid motion; an impulse; violence, vigor, force;" figuratively "ardor, passion," from impetere "to attack," from assimilated form of in- "into, in, on, upon" (from PIE root *en "in") + petere "aim for, rush at" (from PIE root *pet- "to rush, to fly").

early 15c., "violent movement, rushing," from Old French impetuosité (13c.) and directly from Medieval Latin impetuositatem (nominative impetuositas), from Late Latin impetuosus "impetuous, violent" (see impetuous).

Also petə-, Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to rush, to fly." 

It might form all or part of: accipiter; appetence; appetite; apterous; apteryx; archaeopteryx; asymptote; centripetal; Coleoptera; compete; competent; eurypterid; feather; helicopter; hippopotamus; Hymenoptera; impetigo; impetuous; impetus; iopterous; Lepidoptera; ornithopter; panache; panne; pen (n.1) "writing implement;" pennon; peripeteia; perpetual; perpetuity; petition; petulance; petulant; pin; pinion; pinnacle; pinnate; pinniped; potamo-; potamology; propitiation; propitious; ptero-; pterodactyl; ptomaine; ptosis; repeat; symptom.

It might also be the source of: Sanskrit pattram "wing, feather, leaf," patara- "flying, fleeting;" Hittite pittar "wing;" Greek piptein "to fall," potamos "river, rushing water," pteron, pteryx "feather, wing," ptilon "soft feathers, down, plume;" Latin petere "to attack, assail; seek, strive after; ask for, beg; demand, require," penna "feather, wing;" Old Norse fjöðr, Old English feðer "feather;" Old Church Slavonic pero "feather;" Old Welsh eterin "bird."