Etymology

compulsion

com·pul·sion
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Today it means: An irrational need or irresistible urge to perform some action, often despite negative consequences. Full definition →

Middle French compulsion ← Late Latin compulsiō ← Latin compellere
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The story

  1. Latin · derived fromcompellere“to compel, coerce”
  2. Late Latin · derived fromcompulsiō
  3. Middle French · borrowed fromcompulsion
  4. English todaycompulsion

Borrowed from Middle French compulsion, from Late Latin compulsiō, from Latin compellere (“to compel, coerce”); see compel.

Words from the same roots

Latincompellere all →

compelcompulsative

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.