different between compel vs perforce

English

Etymology

From Middle English compellen, borrowed from Middle French compellir, from Latin compellere, itself from com- (“together”) + pellere (“to drive”). Displaced native Middle English fordriven ("to drive out, to lead to, to compel, to force"), from Old English fordr?fan. More at fordrive.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k?m?p?l/
• Rhymes: -?l
• Hyphenation: com?pel

Verb

compel (third-person singular simple present compels, present participle compelling, simple past and past participle compelled)

1. (transitive, archaic, literally) To drive together, round up (Can we add an example for this sense?)
2. (transitive) To overpower; to subdue.
3. (transitive) To force, constrain or coerce.

   Logic compels the wise, while fools feel compelled by emotions.

   • 1600, William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, act 5, scene 1,

     Against my will, / As Pompey was, am I compell’d to set / Upon one battle all our liberties.

   • 1827, Henry Hallam, The Constitutional History of England

     Wolsey […] compelled the people to pay up the whole subsidy at once.

4. (transitive) To exact, extort, (make) produce by force.
5. (obsolete) To force to yield; to overpower; to subjugate.

   • Easy sleep their weary limbs compell'd.

   • ?, Alfred Tennyson, Geraint and Enid

     I compel all creatures to my will.

6. (obsolete) To gather or unite in a crowd or company.

   • in one troop compell'd

7. (obsolete) To call forth; to summon.

Derived terms

Related terms

• compulsion

Translations

References

• compel in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• “compel” in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
• Random House Webster’s Unabridged Electronic Dictionary, 1987-1996.

English

Etymology

From Middle English par force, from Anglo-Norman, from Old French par force (“by force”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /p??f??s/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /p??f??s/
• (US)

Adverb

perforce (not comparable)

1. (archaic) By force.
   • 1593, William Shakespeare, Richard III, Act iii, scene 1 (First Folio):

     If ?he denie, Lord Hastings goe with him,
     And from her iealous Armes pluck him perforce.

   • 1610, William Shakespeare, The Tempest, act 5, scene 1:

     For you, most wicked sir, whom to call brother

     Would even infect my mouth, I do forgive

     Thy rankest fault; all of them; and require

     My dukedom of thee, which, perforce, I know

     Thou must restore.

2. Necessarily; by necessity.
   • 1813, Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, ch. 17:

     Mr. Wickham's happiness and her own were perforce delayed a little longer, and Mr. Collins's proposal accepted with as good a grace as she could..

   • 1882, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Inferno, canto 34:

     "Keep fast thy hold, for by such stairs as these,"

     The Master said, panting as one fatigued,

     "Must we perforce depart from so much evil."

   • 2006, Alejandro Portes, Rubén G. Rumbaut, Immigrant America: A Portrait, 3rd ed., page 239:

     Adult immigrants must perforce learn some English, and their children are likely to become English monolinguals.

Quotations

• For more quotations using this term, see Citations:perforce.

Translations

Verb

perforce (third-person singular simple present perforces, present participle perforcing, simple past and past participle perforced)

1. (obsolete) To force; to compel.