Other forms: obligations
An obligation is something you must do because duty, law or a promise binds you. A legal obligation, a moral obligation, under no obligation.
Under no obligation is the standard phrase in advertising, meaning you can walk away. Obligations are contrasted with rights, and every right somebody holds is an obligation on somebody else. A sense of obligation is what makes people do things they do not want to do. Note obliged, which in older polite English means grateful — much obliged — and obligatory, meaning compulsory.
1nounobligationSomething you must do because of duty, law or a promise.
“There is a legal obligation to report it within a week.”
2nountowardsA sense of duty towards somebody.
“He went out of obligation rather than affection.”
obligation is a binding duty.
Latin obligatio comes from obligare — ob-, towards, plus ligare, to bind, the same verb as in ligament and liable. An obligation is a binding, and the metaphor has never worn off.
Proto-Indo-European
*leyǵ- — to bind
Latin
obligatio
Old French
obligacion
Middle English
obligacioun
English, today
obligation
Built from
From Middle English obligacioun, from Old French obligacion, from Latin obligatio, from obligatum (past participle of obligare), from ob- (“to”) + ligare (“to bind”), from Proto-Indo-European leyǵ- (“to bind”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA