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Motivate in rum, say (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

inspirit

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'motivate' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are verbs in their base form, I don't see how one could define the other.

'in rum say' is the wordplay.
'rum say' becomes 'spirit' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'in'+'spirit'='INSPIRIT'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Another definition for inspirit that I've seen is " Encourage, enliven".)

I've seen this clue in the Sydney Morning Herald.
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