compulsion

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English compulsioun,^[2] borrowed from Middle French compulsion,^[3][4][5][2] or directly borrowed from Late Latin compulsiō,^[2][6][7] from compulsus, the past participle of compellō (“to drive together, force”).^[4][6][2][8] The Latin verb is formed from com- (“together”) and pellō (“to drive”), which Watkins traces to Proto-Indo-European *pel- (“to thrust, strike, drive”).^[4] The Anglo-Norman word is recorded from 1308–09.^[9] It belongs with compel, compulsive and compulsory.^[8][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The use of force, coercion: probably before 1425, in a translation of Higden's Polychronicon.^[5] The Middle English Dictionary has it from 1442 in the rolls of Parliament,^[10] and the OED, whose entry is not fully revised, from 1462, in a letter of Edward IV.^[3]

Semantic evolution

For five centuries the word meant only the act of compelling or the state of being compelled; the phrase on compulsion is in Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1 (1598),^[3] which Johnson (1755) quoted: "I would give no man a reason on compulsion".^[11] The psychological sense, an irresistible inner urge to act in a certain way, came from A. A. Brill's translations of Freud, where compulsion neurosis rendered German Zwangsneurose;^[4][5] Etymonline and Barnhart date it to 1909,^[4][5] and the OED to 1913.^[3] The adjective compulsive took on the matching psychological sense from 1902.^[5]

Timeline

• before 1425 – coercion, the use of force.^[5] The OED's first record is from 1462.^[3]
• 1598 – on compulsion, in Shakespeare.^[3]
• 1909 – the psychological sense, in compulsion neurosis.^[4][5] The OED dates the sense to 1913.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of compelling, or the state of being compelled; coercion: They signed the agreement under compulsion.^[12][2][13]
2. Something that compels; a compelling force.^[12][2]
3. (psychology) An irresistible inner urge to act in a certain way, often repetitively and against one's will: a compulsion to check the locks.^{[12][2][13][3]}

Word family

• noncompulsion

Related words

• compulsive
• compulsory
• compel
• expulsion
• repulsion
• propulsion
• pulse

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
10. ^ 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)
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
13. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press