perforce

WOTD – 9 June 2008    

English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /pəˈfɔːs/, X-SAMPA: /p@"fO:s/
• (US) IPA: /pɚˈfɔɹs/, X-SAMPA: /p@`"fOrs/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Adverb

perforce (not comparable)

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

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

   • 1610, The Tempest, by Shakespeare, 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.
   • 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..

   • 1922, James Joyce, Ulysses, Episode 16

     So, bevelling around by Mullett's and the Signal House which they shortly reached, they proceeded perforce in the direction of Amiens street railway terminus

   • 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 usage examples of this term, see the citations page.

Translations

by force

• Polish: siłą rzeczy, z konieczności

• Scottish Gaelic: air èiginn (gd)

necessarily

• Russian: по необходимости (po neobxodímosti), волей-неволей (ru) (vólej-nevólej) 

Verb

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

1. (obsolete) To force; to compel.