yego.me
💡 Stop wasting time. Read Youtube instead of watch. Download Chrome Extension

Enforce | Vocabulary | Khan Academy


2m read
·Nov 10, 2024

Hey, how do you do wordsmiths? This video is about the word enforce.

Enforce is 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 "en" or "em" and "force." I'll put on some music, and I'll meet you back here in 10 seconds. Right? Let's do it.

[Music]

All right, here's three I came up with.

Reinforce, which means to strengthen something—right? To put more force in it.

Um, 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.

More Articles

View All
Let's Talk About Clean Energy | Breakthrough
I believe that there is energy, clean safe energy all around us, and that it is our opportunity now and our obligation to find ways to access it. I’ve always had great fun converting other people’s work into my own. When I was a kid, I liked coloring book…
Wayfinding Through the Human Genome | Podcast | Overheard at National Geographic
Foreign Fox and I’m an indigenous futurist and genome scientist of all kinds of varieties, humans, bacteria, you name it. Kale Fox is a National Geographic Explorer. He’s also the first native Hawaiian to get a PhD in genome science. This idea of indigeno…
Great Schism or East-West Schism part 2 | World History | Khan Academy
Now, the notion of the Holy Roman Emperor and the Holy Roman Empire does not last much beyond Charlemagne. After his death, over the course of the 9th century, his empire is broken up. His successors are not able to carry on the title. But then we get in…
Female Founders Conference - Mountain View
Right now that you all know each other, I’d like to introduce our first speaker. Okay, I would like to welcome our first speaker, Phaedra Ellis Lumpkins, who’s the founder and CEO of Promise. Now, Promise went through the winter 2018 batch of YC and is wo…
You Will Go Broke If You Do These Things (Beginner Investors, Take Note!)
Hey guys, before we got started with this video, I just wanted to let you know that, um, all November long I will be doing Movember. So hopefully, over the next few weeks, you’ll start to see in my videos, I’ll start to be getting a little bit of a mo. I …
Now's the Time to Buy Stocks | Warren Buffett Just Bet $20 Billion on These Stocks
It’s been a whopping six years since Buffett has made an investment like what just got announced. One of the biggest criticisms in recent years about legendary investor Warren Buffett is that he’s been sitting on the sidelines and not investing while stoc…