- compulsion
- 1462, from M.Fr. compulsion, from L. compulsionem (nom. compulsio), from compulsus, pp. of compellere "compel" (see compel). Psychological sense is from 1909 in A.A. Brill's translation of Freud's "Selected Papers on Hysteria," where Ger. Zwangsneurose is rendered as compulsion neurosis.