Oppress
/əˈprɛs/noun
To keep someone down by force, authority, or harsh treatment.
Did you know?Oppress comes from Latin oppressus, the past participle of opprimere, a verb built from ob- (“against”) + premere (“to press”), so its oldest image is something being pushed down hard.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*per-
“to strike, beat, or press”
Latin
Latin
premere
“to press, squeeze, or crush”
Latin
Latin
opprimere
“to press against, overpower, or crush down”
Old French
Old French
opprimer
“to oppress, weigh down, or burden”
Middle English
English
oppressen
“to crush, overwhelm, or tyrannize”
Modern English
English
oppress
“to keep down by harsh or unjust use of power”