different between compulsion vs necessity

English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• enPR: k?m-p?l'sh?n
• (UK) IPA^(key): /k?m?p?l.??n/
• (US) IPA^(key): /k?m?p?l.??n/

Noun

compulsion (countable and uncountable, plural compulsions)

1. An irrational need or irresistible urge to perform some action, often despite negative consequences.

2. The use of authority, influence, or other power to force (compel) a person or persons to act.
   • 2016 January 17, "Wealthy cabals run America," Al Jazeera America (retrieved 18 January 2016):

     But Treaty translator and Ottawa leader Andrew Blackbird described the Treaty as made “not with the free will of the Indians, but by compulsion.”

3. The lawful use of violence (i.e. by the administration).

Related terms

• compulsive
• compulsory

Translations

Further reading

• compulsion in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• compulsion in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

French

Etymology

From Latin compulsi?.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k??.pyl.sj??/

Noun

compulsion f (plural compulsions)

1. compulsion

Related terms

• compulsif
• compulsionnel

Further reading

• “compulsion” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

English

Etymology

From Middle English necessite, from Old French necessite, from Latin necessit?s (“unavoidableness, compulsion, exigency, necessity”), from necesse (“unavoidable, inevitable”); see necessary.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /n??s?s?ti/

Noun

necessity (countable and uncountable, plural necessities)

2. The quality or state of being necessary, unavoidable, or absolutely requisite.
3. The condition of being needy; desperate need; lack.
   • 1863, Richard Sibbes, The Successful Seeker, in The Complete Works of Richard Sibbes, D.D., Volume VI, James Nichol, page 125,

     For it is in vain for a man to think to seek God in his necessity and exigence, if he seek not God in his ordinances, and do not joy in them.

4. Something necessary; a requisite; something indispensable.
   • 20th century, Tenzin Gyatso (attributed)

     Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot survive.

5. Something which makes an act or an event unavoidable; an irresistible force; overruling power.
   • 1804, Wordsworth, The Small Celandine

     I stopped, and said with inly muttered voice,

     'It doth not love the shower, nor seek the cold:

     This neither is its courage nor its choice,

     But its necessity in being old.

6. The negation of freedom in voluntary action; the subjection of all phenomena, whether material or spiritual, to inevitable causation; necessitarianism. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
7. (law) Greater utilitarian good; used in justification of a criminal act.

8. (law, in the plural) Indispensable requirements (of life).

Synonyms

• (state of being necessary): inevitability, certainty

Antonyms

• (state of being necessary): impossibility, contingency
• (something indispensable): luxury

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Further reading

• necessity in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• necessity in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• cysteines