Encourage

How to spell encourage

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce encourage

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does encourage mean?

1. verbTo give someone the support, confidence, or motivation to do something.

Encourage in a sentence

• Good managers encourage their staff to suggest improvements.

• The coach tried to encourage the nervous players before the match.

Where does encourage come from?

Language of origin: French

This word came into English in the late 1400s from the Old French encoragier, which broke down into the prefix en-, meaning 'to put into' or 'to make', joined to corage, the Old French word for 'heart' or 'spirit'. That root traces back to the Latin cor, literally meaning 'heart', because the medieval mind located bravery and resolve in the heart rather than the head. So to encourage someone was originally to put heart into them, to fill them with spirit and the will to act. The same Latin cor sits inside relatives such as 'courage', 'cordial', and even 'record', which once meant to call something back to the heart or mind. For spelling, it helps to remember that the word is simply en- bolted onto 'courage', so the tricky '-cour-' chunk and the silent flavour of the '-age' ending are inherited whole from that older French form.

How the word is built

• en- (to put into, make)
• courage (heart, bravery; from Latin cor 'heart')