Etymologically
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pressure

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 15 October 2026 at 19:39. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • IPA: UK /ˈpreʃ.ə/, US /ˈpreʃ.ɚ/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English pressure,[2][3] borrowed from Old French presseure (“oppression, torture, anguish; press for wine or cheese”), pressure, a learned borrowing, and directly borrowed from Latin pressūra (“action of pressing”),[4][5] from pressus, the past participle of premere (“to press, hold fast, compress”),[4][2] from Proto-Indo-European *per- (“to strike”).[4][2] It is related to press.[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

“Distress, anguish, suffering”: about 1384, in the Wycliffe Bible,[5] or 1382.[7]

Semantic evolution

The literal meaning, the exertion of continuous force by pressing, is from probably before 1425.[5][4] The physical sense, force per unit of area, as the pressure of the air, is from 1660, in Robert Boyle.[5][7] “Moral or mental coercing force, influence” is from the 1620s,[4] the weight of political or economic burdens from 1616,[7] and “urgency, demands on one's time” from 1812.[5][4] The verb, “to pressurize”, is from 1886 in American English,[4] and “to exert pressure on someone” by 1922[4] or from 1939, in Raymond Chandler.[5][7] The pressure cooker is from 1915.[5][4]

Timeline

  • 1382 – distress, anguish.[7]
  • before 1425 – the act of pressing.[5]
  • 1620s – moral or mental pressure.[4]
  • 1660 – pressure in physics.[5]
  • 1812 – urgency.[5]
  • 1886 – verb, to pressurize.[4]
  • 1915 – pressure cooker.[5]
  • 1939 – verb, to put pressure on.[5][7]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. Continuous physical force applied against a thing.
  2. (physics) Force per unit of area: air pressure.
  3. Influence or force used to persuade or compel: under pressure from voters.
  4. Worry and demands that cause stress: the pressure of work.

Verb

  1. To force or urge someone by persuasion or influence.
  2. To pressurize.

Word family

  • pressureless

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 The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  3. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  6. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press