Impress Once Meant Forcing Men Into the Navy
To impress is to press something in, and to make a strong effect. A third sense filled British warships by force for two centuries.
To impress is to press one thing into another, which is why a seal impresses wax and a fact impresses a listener. A separate and darker sense once mattered enormously: *impressment* was the forced recruitment of men into the Royal Navy by press gangs, legal in Britain until the nineteenth century.
- To make a strong positive effect. *The speech impressed everyone.*
- To press a mark into a surface. *Impress a pattern in the clay.*
- To force into service (historical). *Sailors were impressed at the docks.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Verb | impress | It impressed me. |
| Past | impressed | Deeply impressed. |
| Noun | impression | A good impression. |
| Adjective | impressive | An impressive result. |
| Noun | impressment | Naval impressment. |
How it is used in a sentence
- She impressed the interview panel.The everyday sense.
- The design is impressed into the metal.Physical marking.
- He was impressed into the navy at seventeen.The historical sense, taken by force.
The impression family
- Impression — an effect on the mind, or a physical mark
- Impressive — causing admiration
- Impressionable — easily influenced
- Impressionism — the art movement, named from a Monet title
- First impression — the judgement formed in the first moments
From Latin *imprimere*, to press into, from *in* and *premere*, to press — the same root as *press*, *print* and *express*. The recruitment sense came from *prest*, an advance payment, and later merged with *impress* in spelling and sense.
What was a press gang?
A party of sailors who seized men and forced them to serve in the Royal Navy. The practice was widespread in the eighteenth century.
Impressed by or impressed with?
Both are used. Impressed by is slightly more common for the cause of the impression.