compulsative

English

Etymology

From Late Latin compulsāt-, participial stem of compulsāre, intensitive form of Latin compellere (“to compel”).

Adjective

compulsative (not comparable)

1. (obsolete) Compulsatory; employing force or constraint.
   • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], page 153:

     But to recouer of vs by ſtrong hand / And termes Compulſatiue, thoſe foreſaid Lands

   • 1632, G[eorge] S[andys], “Vpon the Seaventh Booke […] ”, in Ovid, translated by G[eorge] S[andys], Ovid’s Metamorphosis Englished, Mythologiz’d, And Repreſented in Figures, Oxford: Iohn Lichfield, page 256:

     The infernall powers appeaſed with ſacrifice, prayers, and tedious murmurings (words ſoftly muttered barbarous and vnſignificant, leaſt they ſhould diſturbe the Imagination: although held by the deluded of a compulſative power) Medea cauſeth Æſon to be brought forth: […]

   • 1799, J[ohann] G[eorg von] Zimmermann, Reflections on Men and Things; Translated from a French Manuscript […], London: Printed by T. Daviſon […] for H. D. Symonds […], page 107:

     There seems to be something brotherly in compulsative religion; it forces a man to go to heaven nolens volens.

Derived terms

• compulsatively

 

Further reading

• “compulsative”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.