obliger

oblige +‎ -er

obliger (plural obligers)

1. One who, or that which, obliges.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Sir H. Wotton to this entry?)

From Middle French obliger, from Old French obligier, borrowed from Latin obligāre, present active infinitive of obligō.

• IPA^(key): /ɔ.bli.ʒe/

• audio

  (file)

• Homophones: obligé, obligeai

obliger

1. (transitive) to oblige, to require, to compel, to force someone (to do something: (transitive with à))

   Synonyms: contraindre, forcer

2. (Louisiana) to help, to aid
3. (passive) (transitive with de) to have to

   Synonym: devoir

This is a regular -er verb, but the stem is written oblige- before endings that begin with -a- or -o- (to indicate that the -g- is a “soft” /ʒ/ and not a “hard” /ɡ/). This spelling-change occurs in all verbs in -ger, such as neiger and manger.

• obligation

• “obliger” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

obliger

1. first-person singular present passive subjunctive of obligō

From Old French obligier, from Latin obligāre, present active infinitive of obligō.

obliger

1. (transitive) to oblige

• As parler except an extra e is inserted after the final g before a and o.
• Middle French conjugation varies from one text to another. Hence, the following conjugation should be considered as typical, not as exhaustive.

• French: obliger