Today’s word of the day is coercion. Coercion is a noun that means “the act of coercing; use of force or intimidation to obtain compliance”; “force or the power to use force in gaining compliance, as by a government or police force” (https://www.dictionary.com/browse/coercion). I have to say that I don’t really like circular definitions, like “coercion means the act of coercing,” because they require you to look up the other word. So coercing is, of course, the present participle of the verb “to coerce,” which means “to compel by force, intimidation, or authority, especially without regard for individual desire or volition” (https://www.dictionary.com/browse/coerce).

Etymonline says that coercion entered the language in the “early 15c., cohercioun, ‘compulsion, forcible constraint,’ from Old French cohercion (Modern French coercion), from Medieval Latin coercionem, from Latin coerctionem, earlier coercitionem, noun of action from past-participle stem of coercere ‘to control, restrain’ (see coerce).
“It defies the usual pattern where Middle English –cion reverts to Latin type and becomes –tion. Specific sense in reference to government by force, ostensibly to suppress disorder, emerged from 19c. British policies in Ireland. ‘As the word has had, in later times, a bad flavour, suggesting the application of force as a remedy, or its employment against the general sense of the community, it is now usually avoided by those who approve of the action in question’ [OED]” (https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=coercion).

Coerce, on the other hand, came into the language in the “mid-15c., cohercen, ‘restrain or constrain by force of law or authority,’ from Old French cohercier, from Latin coercere ‘to control, restrain, shut up together,’ from assimilated form of com– ‘together’ (see co-) + arcere ‘to enclose, confine, contain, ward off,’ from PIE *ark– ‘to hold, contain, guard’ (see arcane). The unetymological -h- was perhaps by influence of cohere…. No record of the word between late 15c. and mid-17c.; its reappearance 1650s is perhaps a back-formation from coercion” (https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=coerce).

We saw the unetymological insertion of a letter into a word with redoubtable, but in this case the unetymological h was dropped. The most interesting thing about this etymology is that it suggests that coerce was borrowed from French in the 15^th century and then dropped, but then it came back into the language as a backformation.

According to On This Day, on this date in 1954, the first Church of Scientology was established in Los Angeles (https://www.onthisday.com/today/events.php?utm_source=email&utm_medium=newsletter).

Scientology was invented by a writer named L. Ron Hubbard. Hubbard was known mostly as a writer of science fiction though he wrote in other genres. He was also known as a very charismatic person, a hypnotist, and, to some people, a charlatan. Nieson Himmel (c. 1922-1999), a well-known Los Angeles journalist known for his coverage of mobsters, once said of Hubbard, “Whenever he was talking about being hard up he often used to say that he thought the easiest way to make money would be to start a religion” (Russell Miller, Bare-Faced Messiah: The True Story of L. Ron Hubbard, Holt, 1988, p. 117). Himmel was one of those who would have considered Hubbard a charlatan.

The Church of Scientology “is variously defined as a cult, a business, a religion, a scam, or a new religious movement” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology). The debate over how to classify it has gone on since its inception. While the estimates are that it has a mere 40,000 members worldwide, it has some influential and wealthy members, and many of those members donate large amounts of money to the church. Two of the most well-known members are Tom Cruise and John Travolta.

The church has also been the focal point of much controversy. One of the most prominent former members of the church is Leah Rimini (1970-), who starred in King of Queens and Kevin Can Wait. Her family joined the church when she was nine, but “In July 2013, Remini left Scientology,^[49] owing to policies that forbid members from questioning the management of Church leader David Miscavige, which she believed was corrupt; the reported abuse of members of its Sea Org religious order; its policy of “disconnection“; and its practice of branding those who have left the Church of their own accord as “suppressive persons” and the fair gaming tactics that Scientology has used for decades” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leah_Remini; I left the hyperlinks in for anyone who wants to read more about these tactics).

Other religions have used coercion in the past, and some even still, although usually religions, like Christianity in the Middle Ages and Islam in the Middle East, are directly connected to governments because governments give themselves a monopoly on coercive power. The Church of Scientology uses coercion against lower-level current and former members without the backing of a coercive government. It sometimes employs government, particularly through lawsuits, against suppressive persons. But mostly it uses intimidation. And if you can’t tell, I oppose the use of coercive power for any reason. If you have a good idea or a strongly held belief that you think is worth sharing, persuade me.

The image today is “David Miscavige releases L. Ron Hubbard’s Basics Books and Lectures of Dianetics and Scientology before tens of thousands at an internationally broadcast event in 2007.” David Miscavige is the current leader of the Church of Scientology, the Chairman of the Board of the Religious Technology Center, and the image is from his website (https://www.davidmiscavige.org/accomplishments/renaissance-for-scientology/recovering-the-foundations-of-the-scientology-religion.html).