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Course: 6th grade reading and vocabulary (improved and expanded) > Unit 1
Lesson 5: Tracing ideas across a textEnforce | Vocabulary
Let’s explore the meaning and origin of the word “enforce”. Created by David Rheinstrom.
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- The music though is spot on!👹👹👹(lol)(1 vote)
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Video transcript
- [Instructor] Hey, how
do you do wordsmiths? This video is about the word enforce. Enforce, it's a verb. It means to make sure that
a rule or law is followed. You might usually hear it in
the context of enforcing a law. Right? If I drive too fast, local authorities can
enforce the speed limit by issuing me a speeding ticket. Now, the word origin here
is kind of a violent one, this word comes from the
old French, enforcier, which means to use force
on someone or something. So, EN means in, or on. When it's EN, 99% of the time, that means it has a French origin, and sometimes it'll appear as EM too. Force means strength or power, it ultimately comes from
a Latin word, fortis, which just means strength. So when you enforce, you're
using your strength on someone. Let's take 10 seconds to come up with some more English words that contain N, or M, and force. I'll put on some music, and I'll meet you back here in 10 seconds. All right, let's do it. (energetic music) Right, here's three I came up with. Reinforce, which means to
strengthen something, right, to put more force in it. Encode, which means to
make information secret, or to give computerized instructions. A spy might carry an encoded letter, or I might convert a video file from one file type to another using an encoder program. Right? I'm putting it in, or into, code. And embolden, which means to
give someone confidence, right? Literally, to put boldness in them. And I know it's EM there, but M means the same thing as N. Let us use the force, as it were, and make some sentences. "The admiral enforced
the law on his enemies, but he ignored the law for his friends." So the admiral made sure that his enemies had to follow
the law, but not his friends. There he is signing a little decree. The noun form of enforce is enforcement, which you're most likely to
read or hear in the phrase "law enforcement," which is to say the police,
sheriff's department, Department of Justice, right? Law enforcement is empowered
to enforce the law. They represent the power of
the state to say things like, "Hey, it's against the
law to hurt people." And if someone hurts people, the law has the power to stop them, right? That's what it means to
have enforcement powers. Okay, you can learn anything. David, out.