compel

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English compellen,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French compeller and compellir,^{[5][3][6][7][8]} and directly borrowed from Latin compellō (“to drive together, force”).^{[6][4][9][10]} Barnhart calls the French verb a learned borrowing from Latin;^[3] the OED finds it in the 14th century,^[5] and the Anglo-Norman compeller is recorded from 1361.^[11] The Latin verb was used of driving cattle together to one place and of forcing people;^[6] it is formed from com- (“together”) and pellō (“to drive”),^{[6][3][12][4]} which Watkins and the American Heritage Dictionary derive from Proto-Indo-European *pel- (“to thrust, strike, drive”).^[6][4] The Latin past participle compulsus is the source of compulsion,^[12][13] and Klein relates the verb to appeal and pulse.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

To force or oblige a person to do something: about 1380, in the Wycliffite tract Antecrist,^[5] and before 1387 in Trevisa's translation of Higden, where schoolchildren are compelled to construe their lessons in French.^[2] Barnhart dates the verb to probably about 1350,^[3] Etymonline to the mid 14th century.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Chaucer used the verb four times.^[14] The literal Latin sense, to drive together or to drive by force, came in from 1447, mostly in translations,^[5] and Hoad dates it to the 15th century.^[9] An obsolete sense, to take something by force or extort it, is recorded from before 1500 to 1829.^[5] From 1673 the object could be the action itself: to compel obedience or respect, to bring it about by force or moral necessity.^[5] Johnson (1755) defined it as to force to some act, oblige, constrain or urge irresistibly, quoting Julius Caesar.^[15] The sense "to overpower" (1697, in Dryden's Virgil) is obsolete in the OED,^[5] though Collins still lists it.^[16] Merriam-Webster notes that the verb is often used in the passive.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 1380 – to force a person to do something.^[5]
• 1447 – to drive by force; to drive together.^[5]
• before 1500 – to take by force, extort (obsolete by 1829).^[5]
• 1526 – with a simple object, to constrain.^[5]
• 1657 – to compress (now only figurative).^[5]
• 1673 – to bring about or exact by force or moral necessity.^[5]
• 1697 – to overpower (obsolete).^[5]
• 1903 – used without an object.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To force or oblige someone to do something, by physical force, necessity or moral pressure; often in the passive: Heavy snow compelled the climbers to turn back.^[16][7][5]
2. To bring about or obtain by force or authority; to exact: The old captain could compel respect without raising his voice.^[16][5]
3. To drive or push forcibly in a direction.^[7][5]
4. (archaic) To drive or herd together.^[16][5]

Word family

• compellable
• compellably
• compeller
• compellent
• compellingly
• compelling

Related words

• compulsion
• compulsory
• pulse
• appeal
• expel
• impel
• propel
• repel
• dispel

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
12. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
14. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
15. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
16. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins