Etymologically
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compel

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Pronunciation

  • /kəmˈpɛl/[1]

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oblige, constrain or urge irresistibly, quoting Julius Caesar.[15] The sense "to overpower" (1697, in Dryden's Virgil) is obsolete in the OED,[5] though Collins still lists it.[16] Merriam-Webster notes that the verb is often used in the passive.[7]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

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