Word Origins & Resources

6 Points

compress

Late Middle English: from Old French compresser or late Latin compressare, frequentative of Latin comprimere, from com- ‘together’ + premere ‘to press’; or directly from compress- ‘pressed together’, from the verb comprimere.

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depress

Late Middle English: from Old French depresser, from late Latin depressare, frequentative of deprimere ‘press down’.
depressible,  immunodepressant,  immunodepressed,  immunodepression,  immunodepressive

express

In the sense ‘to convey in words or by behaviour’, express originally meant ‘to press out, obtain by squeezing’, and its root is Latin pressare ‘to press’. Express meaning ‘intended for a particular purpose’ is from another Latin word meaning ‘to press’, primere, and is the source of express train and other uses that involve high speed. As early as 1845 an express train went ‘expressly’ or specifically to one particular place, not stopping at intermediate stations. This would have been a relatively fast train, and led to the word being interpreted as meaning ‘fast, rapid’.

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impress

Late Middle English (in the sense ‘apply with pressure’): from Old French empresser, from em- ‘in’ + presser ‘to press’, influenced by Latin imprimere (see imprint); sense 1 of the verb dates from the mid 18th century.

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oppress

Late Middle English: from Old French oppresser, from medieval Latin oppressare, from Latin oppress- ‘pressed against’, from the verb opprimere.

oppressing,  oppressingly,  oppressionist,  oppressiveness,  unoppressed,  unoppressive

repress

Late Middle English: from Old French oppresser, from medieval Latin oppressare, from Latin oppress- ‘pressed against’, from the verb opprimere.

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suppress

Late Middle English: from Latin suppress- ‘pressed down’, from the verb supprimere, from sub- ‘down’ + premere ‘to press’.

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press

Middle English: from Old French presse (noun), presser (verb), from Latin pressare ‘keep pressing’, frequentative of premere.

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The words press and print ultimately come from the Proto-Indo-European root per– (sense 4) meaning “to strike,” an extended sense from the same root (sense 1) meaning “forward, through.“ The root (sense 4) is also the source of pregnant (in the sense “full of a quality or feeling“), reprimand, and imprimatur—beware of the spelling of these words as they do not resemble the stems. Also beware of the following words: empress, lypress, pressie—they may look like the base, but they do not come from the same root.

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