force majeuren.

1858 P. L. Simmonds Dict. Trade Products Force-majeure, a French commercial term for unavoidable accidents in the transport of goods, from superior force, the act of God, &c.]

1883 Academy 8 Sept. 158/1 Tyranny, upheld by law, will generally be ‘tempered’ by outrage, so long as a force majeure prevents its being met in any other way.

1886 Macmillan's Mag. Sept. 342/1 They [sc. politicians] will not combine except under force majeure.

1902 Encycl. Brit. XXV. 112/1 The expression ‘act of God’..is not synonymous with force majeure; but it includes every loss by force majeure in which human agency, by act or negligence, has had no part.

1907 W. De Morgan Alice-for-Short i Hindered from..determined effort by a force-majeure trying to the temper but heroically endured.

1916 ‘Peter’ Trench Yarns v. 51 Force majeure being on George's side, the transaction was accomplished to the accompaniment of awful threats as to George's lurid future.

1930 W. de la Mare Poems for Children p. xxix Whose right is often founded solely on force majeure.

1941 A. L. Rowse Tudor Cornwall xi. 265 It was thought..that the mayor had yielded the town by treachery, but later they learned that it was rather by force majeure.

1959 G. Mitchell Man who grew Tomatoes iii. 39 One cannot be a respected and highly respectable Civil Servant for twenty years without learning to bow to the force majeure of public opinion.