Encouragement

How to spell encouragement

13 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce encouragement

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does encouragement mean?

1. nounThe action of giving someone support, confidence, or hope to do something.

Encouragement in a sentence

• A few words of encouragement from her manager helped her finish the report.

• The coach offered constant encouragement to the slower runners.

Where does encouragement come from?

Language of origin: French

This word traces back to the Latin cor, meaning 'heart', the same root behind 'courage' and 'cordial'. Old French built the verb encoragier by attaching the prefix en-, meaning roughly 'to put into' or 'cause to have', so the literal idea was to put heart into someone, to fill them with spirit and confidence. English borrowed the verb 'encourage' in the fifteenth century, and the abstract noun 'encouragement' followed soon after by adding the French and Latin suffix -ment, which turns an action into the thing or state it produces. The spelling preserves the buried word 'courage' in the middle, which is the most reliable memory hook: keep the -age- of courage intact and simply wrap it in en- and -ment. The soft 'g' before the e is why the central syllable sounds like 'rij' rather than a hard g.

How the word is built

• en- (to put into, cause to have)
• courage (from cor: heart)
• -ment (noun-forming suffix)