The story
- Old Norse · derived fromforsfall“waterfall, torrent”
- Middle English · inherited from*forsfal
- English todayforcefall
From Middle English *forsfal, from Old Norse forsfall (“waterfall, torrent”), equivalent to force (“waterfall”) + fall. Compare Icelandic fossfall (“waterfall, torrent”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.