English → Latin
“obligation” in Latin
officiumduty, service, office; obligation, an obligatory service, visit, or gesture; kindness, favor, courtesydēbeōto owe something, to be under obligation to and for something; to be bound, in duty bound to do something; "ought", "musbeneficiumbenefit; favour, favor, kindness, servicedūcōto lead, guide, conduct, lead away; to take; to draw, pullobligōto bind in obligation, obligate, make liable; to make guilty; to mortgage, pawn
The English word obligation itself goes back to Latin ligō, through obligatio.
Riddle & Arnold A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon, 1864
obligation
Duty, officium; quod meum, tuum est; quod debeo, debes: I consider that I am under an obligation to, meum esse puto, duco. [Vid :, also, DUTY.]
Act by which one binds one’s self, satis datio = BOND [Vid: BOND].
Favor by which one is bound in gratitude, beneficium: to be under an obligation to anybody, alicujus beneficiis obligatum esse; vinculis beneficii obstrictum esse (Cic.): under obligation, obligatus (Plin., Ep.). To lay anybody under a great obligation, magnam ab aliquo (Cic.) or apud aliquem (Liv.) gratiam inire.
Quick answer
- What is the Latin word for obligation?
- The usual Latin words for “obligation” are officium, dēbeō, beneficium; also dūcō, obligō. The right choice depends on the sense; see the distinctions below.
Entry from J. E. Riddle & T. K. Arnold, A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon (rev. C. Anthon, New York: Harper, 1864), digitised by Fergus J. P. Walsh, CC BY-SA 4.0; Latin markup adapted by latindictionary.co.