Etymologically
Log in

forzar

History Permalink

Etymology and origin of the Spanish word forzar

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
950–1000 Glosas Silenses More words from the 10th century
Inherited from
Latin *fortio via Old Spanish
Ultimate origin
Latin fortis

Pronunciation

  • /foɾˈθaɾ/, [foɾˈθaɾ], /foɾˈsaɾ/[1]

Forms

forzar (first-person singular present fuerzo, first-person singular preterite forcé, past participle forzado)[1] Old Spanish wrote forçar, with the forms fuerçan, forçada and forçados beside spellings with ⟨z⟩ such as forzare.[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish forçar, inherited from Vulgar Latin *fortiāre (“to force”).[3][1][4] Corominas calls it a derivative common to all the western Romance languages, formed on Late Latin fortia (“strength, force”), the source of fuerza.[5] The Late Latin noun was originally the neuter plural of fortis (“strong, brave”), taken from phrases meaning “brave deeds”, and it replaced Latin vīs in all the western Romance languages.[1][5]

The same verb is Portuguese forçar, Galician forzar, Catalan forçar, Occitan forçar, French forcer and Italian forzare.[6][1] The adjective goes back to Proto-Italic *forktis.[7][1] Its earlier history is unclear, and de Vaan and Wiktionary weigh Proto-Indo-European *bʰerǵʰ- (“high”) against Proto-Indo-European *dʰerǵʰ- (“to make firm”).[7][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas records the verb in the Glosas Silenses of the second half of the 10th century.[5] Charters of the Ebro valley have forzare in the late 11th or early 12th century and forcara in 1130.[2] The Fuero de Madrid fines anyone que forzare poco & multo, “who takes anything by force, little or much”, sixty sueldos.[8] Alfonso X's prose uses it both for using violence to gain an end and for raping a woman.[9]

Semantic evolution

The medieval senses, to take by force and to violate a woman, were joined by the moral sense “compel”, which Autoridades illustrates from Cervantes's Persiles, and by the military sense of storming a fortress, illustrated from Mariana.[10] Nebrija's Latin dictionary already glosses forçar donzella and empuxar & forçar.[11] The Academy's 19th-century dictionaries list forcing a door, storming a place, rape, seizing by force and compelling, with an obsolete reflexive forzarse “make an effort”.[12][13] Sailors forzaban a ship by carrying much sail in a strong wind, and forced a harbour by entering it under fire.[14]

Modern dictionaries add pushing a machine or an organ to its limit, as in straining the eyes, and twisting an interpretation.[15][16] The Dominican Republic and Venezuela have the idioms forzar el mingo and forzar la barra, to push too hard for a result.[17]

Timeline

  • 950–1000 – the Glosas Silenses, the first record.[5]
  • 1130 – forcara in a charter of the Ebro valley.[2]
  • 1141–1235 – the Fuero de Madrid punishes whoever forzare anything.[8]
  • 1254 – an Alfonsine astrological text uses forçar for rape.[9]
  • 1535 – the first record from the Americas, in Cartagena: la necesidad nos fuerza.[18]
  • 1726–1739 – Autoridades records the senses “force”, “compel”, “storm” and “rape”.[10]
  • 1884 – the Academy derives it from fuerza and Low Latin fortiare.[19]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To use force or physical violence to get something that is not normally got by force: forzar una cerradura.[3][1]
  2. To take a fortified place or a castle by force of arms; to storm.[3][1]
  3. To rape (violar).[3][1]
  4. To take or occupy something by force.[3]
  5. To compel (obligar) someone to do something; also reflexive: Me forcé a terminar el informe.[3][1]
  6. To push something to the limit of its capacity: Si fuerzas tanto la máquina, se quemará.[15]
  7. (obsolete) Reflexive: to make an effort (esforzarse).[3]

Word family

  • esforzar
  • esfuerzo
  • forzado
  • forzador
  • forzamiento
  • forzoso
  • forzudo
  • reforzar

Usage notes

Forzar diphthongises in the stressed stem: fuerzo, fuerzas, fuerce;[20][21][1] Cuervo and Román criticised speakers who conjugated it without the diphthong.[20][21][1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. forzar
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. forzar
  4. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 2889
  5. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 972
  6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 3462
  7. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  8. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. forzar
  9. ^ a b Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. forzar
  10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 785
  11. ^ Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. forzar
  12. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 349
  13. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 367
  14. ^ Gaspar y Roig (eds.) (1853–1855), Biblioteca ilustrada de Gaspar y Roig: Diccionario enciclopédico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Imprenta y Librería de Gaspar y Roig, p. 1, 1034
  15. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. forzar
  16. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. forzar
  17. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. forzar
  18. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. forzar
  19. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 506
  20. ^ a b Cuervo, Rufino José (1914), Apuntaciones críticas sobre el lenguaje bogotano, 6th ed., París: A. & R. Roger y F. Chernoviz, p. 239
  21. ^ a b Román, Manuel Antonio (1901–1918), Diccionario de chilenismos y de otras voces y locuciones viciosas, 5 vols., Santiago de Chile: Imprenta de San José, p. 391

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Forzar.” Etymologically, 7 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/es/forzar. Accessed 7 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·