Conscripting

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. The practice entails the forced enrollment of members of the public into military service It indicates the act of compelling individuals to join the armed forces This procedure represents the involuntary recruitment of citizens for military duties
2. The act of mandating individuals to join armed forces without voluntary consent
3. Forcing people to register and serve in the military as required by law

Etymology: Conscription is the forcing of people into military service, and the word's core is a Roman idea: the Latin "conscriptus" meant "written together," as in names entered on a list. Roman writers used it for enrolled men, so the noun-like sense of a registered person was built into the root from the start. The English verb comes from "conscript," which was formed from the Latin "conscribere," "to write together; enroll," through the prefix "con-" ("together") and "scribere" ("to write"). The same Latin root gives "script," so a conscript is literally someone whose name has been written into a register. The military sense of forced enrollment grew out of this list-making. Enrolling people by writing their names down is the basic act behind compulsory service, so "conscripting" describes the act of calling people onto the register and into the army.

Synonyms: drafting, enlisting