Word of the Day：June 17, 2022
Oblige
效劳；迫使
verb /uh-BLYJE/ [??bla?d?]
What It Means
Oblige is usually used to mean “to do a favor for someone,” or “to do something as a favor, or as though it is a favor.” In more technical use, it means “to force or require someone to do something.”
Oblige 通常用来表示“为某人做事”，更多用于“强迫或要求某人做某事”。
OBLIGE in Context
"Fiduciaries are obliged to do what's in your best interest, even if it means they make less money." — Paul Katzeff, Investor's Business Daily, 13 May 2022
“受托人有义务做符合你最大利益的事情，即使他们赚取的很少。”
They needed help organizing the event, and I was happy to oblige.
我很乐意帮忙需要协助组织这次活动的他们。
The law obliges the government to make this information public.
法律要求政府公开这些信息。
Did You Know?
If you are obliged by a rule or law you are metaphorically bound by it—that is, you are required to obey it. The idea of binding links the word to its Latin source, ligāre, meaning “to fasten, bind.” In the most common modern uses of oblige, though, the idea of binding is somewhat masked: it is applied when someone is bound by a debt for some favor or service, as in “We’re much obliged to you for the help,” but in the phrase “happy to oblige” it simply expresses a willingness to do someone a favor, as in “They needed a ride and we were happy to oblige.”
如果您是被迫接受了规则或法律，受到了它的约束—也就是说，您必须遵守它。 约束的概念将这个词与它的拉丁语词源 ligāre 联系起来，意思是“ to fasten「固定」，bind「约束」”。 然而，现代最常见的用法中的 oblige，其约束的含义在某种程度上被掩盖了：它适用于因某种好处或便捷而受到债务约束的人，例如“we're much obliged to you for the help「我们很感谢你的帮助」”， 但在短语“happy to oblige”中，它仅仅表示愿意帮某人一个忙，例如“they need a ride and we were happy to oblige「他们需要搭车，我们很乐意载他们一程」”。
Word Family Quiz
Fill in the blanks to complete a word derived from Latin ligāre that can refer to a character (such as ? or ?) consisting of two or more letters or characters joined together: l _ gat _ re.
ligature
