Repress
Middle English (in the sense ‘keep back something objectionable’): from Latin repress- ‘pressed back, checked’, from the verb reprimere, from re- ‘back’ + premere ‘to press’.
wiktionary
Ultimately from Latin repressus, the perfect passive participle of reprimō(“I repress”).
re- + press
etymonline
repress (v.)
late 14c., "to check, restrain (sin, error); to overcome, put down, subdue (riot, rebellion);" from Latin repressus, past participle of reprimere "hold back, curb," figuratively "check, confine, restrain, refrain," from re- "back" (see re-) + premere "to press, hold fast, cover, crowd, compress" (from PIE root *per- (4) "to strike").
Used of feelings or desires from late 14c.; in the purely psychological sense "keep out of the conscious mind, keep in the subconscious" it represents German verdrängen (Freud, 1893), that sense of the word first attested in English in 1904 (implied in repressed). Related: Repressed; repressing.
