force

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /fɔːs/, US /fɔːrs/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English force (also fors), borrowed from Old French force (“force, strength; courage; violence, compulsion”),^[2][3][4] from Late Latin fortia,^[2][5] the neuter plural of Latin fortis (“strong, mighty; brave”),^[2][3][5] which Klein notes was mistaken for a feminine singular noun.^[6] The verb is inherited from Middle English forcen, from Old French forcier (“to conquer by violence”), from Vulgar Latin *fortiāre.^[2][3][7] The AHD traces Latin fortis to Proto-Indo-European *bhergh- (“high”).^[5] It is related to fort, fortitude, effort and comfort.^[3][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Physical strength, might: probably before 1300, in Arthour and Merlin,^[2] or about 1300.^[3][8]

Semantic evolution

The power or might of a ruler or realm, especially military strength, is recorded from 1303.^[9] The power to convince the mind and power used against someone's will are from the mid-14th century.^[3] A body of armed men is from the late 14th century,^[3] or 1487 in the Historical Thesaurus,^[9] and Hoad dates it to the 14th century.^[10] The physics sense, an influence that changes a body's motion, came later.^[3][11] The verb meant “to exert force upon an adversary” about 1300, and by the early 14th century also “to rape”.^[3][8] “To compel, constrain” is from about 1400,^[3][8] and “to bring about by unusual effort” from the 1550s.^[3] In card games, “to make a player play a certain card” is from 1746, in whist.^[3][8] Forcible is from about 1422,^[2] and forceful from 1571.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – physical strength.^[3][2]
• c. 1300 – verb, to exert force upon.^[3]
• 1303 – military power.^[9]
• mid-14th century – power against one's will.^[3]
• late 14th century – a body of armed men.^[3]
• c. 1400 – verb, to compel.^[3][8]
• c. 1422 – forcible.^[2]
• 1571 – forceful.^[2]
• 1746 – verb, in card games.^[3]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. Strength, energy or active power.
2. Power used against resistance; physical power used to compel or restrain; violence.
3. Intellectual or moral power, as in speech or writing.
4. A body of armed men or of people organized for a purpose: the police force.
5. (physics) A vector quantity that changes the motion of a body.
6. Legal validity: in force.

Verb

1. To compel by pressure or necessity.
2. To get or move something by force; to break open.
3. To produce with effort: a forced smile.
4. To make plants grow faster by artificial means.
5. (archaic) To rape.

Word family

• forceable
• forcer
• forceless
• forcingly
• unforceable
• enforce
• forceful
• forcible

Related words

• fort
• fortitude
• fortify
• effort
• comfort
• reinforce
• forcemeat

Usage notes

The American Heritage Dictionary compares force with compel, coerce, constrain and oblige: force, the most general, usually implies the exertion of strength.^[11] In the north of England a force is a waterfall, from Old Norse fors, recorded from 1600;^[8][4][12] and force, “to stuff”, survives in forcemeat, an alteration of farce.^[4][6]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
6. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
10. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
12. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)