262: obligated versus obliged Aug 27, 2015

'Obligated' and 'obliged' look fairly similar; the two words are related. 'Obliged' comes from Middle English (in the sense ‘bind by oath’): ultimately from Latin 'obligare', which in turn derives from 'ob-' meaning ‘toward’ and 'ligare' ‘to bind’. 'Obliged' comes from late Middle English (as an adjective in the sense ‘bound by law’): from Latin obligatus, past participle of 'obligare'. The current adjectival use dates from the late 19th century. The difference between these two seemingly different words, is that originally, one was treated as a verb, and one was only treated as an adjective; now they are treated the same.