Etymology

compulsory

C3O1M3P3U1L1S1O1R1Y4

Today it means: Required; obligatory; mandatory. Full definition →

Late Latin compulsorius ← Latin compulsus
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Latin · derived fromcompulsus
  2. Late Latin · borrowed fromcompulsorius
  3. English todaycompulsory

Borrowed from Late Latin compulsorius, from Latin compulsus. Displaced native Old English ġenīedelīċ.

Words from the same roots

Latincompulsus all →

compulsive

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.