What is the Latin root for force?
Sarah Cherry
Updated on April 04, 2026
Similarly, what is the root word for force?
1300, "physical strength," from Old French force "force, strength; courage, fortitude; violence, power, compulsion" (12c.), from Vulgar Latin *fortia (source also of Old Spanish forzo, Spanish fuerza, Italian forza), noun use of neuter plural of Latin fortis "strong, mighty; firm, steadfast; brave, bold" (see fort).
Beside above, what is the origin of a force? A force is an effect of something on something else. Therefore the origin of a force can be many things. There are countless things that can exert a force on other things, everything with mass exerts an attractive force on everything else with mass. A magnet can exert a force on anything that can be magnetized.
Then, what is the meaning of the Latin root forc?
Test your strength against this list of vocabulary words that use the Latin roots forc and fort, meaning "strong."
Who invented the word force?
Sir Isaac Newton described the motion of all objects using the concepts of inertia and force, and in doing so he found they obey certain conservation laws. In 1687, Newton published his thesis Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica.