1550s, from Latin urgere "to press hard, push forward, force, drive, compel, stimulate," perhaps [de Vaan] from a PIE root *urgh- "to tie, bind" (source also of Lithuanian veržti "tie, fasten, squeeze," vargas "need, distress," vergas "slave;" Old Church Slavonic vragu "enemy;" Gothic wrikan "persecute," Old English wrecan "drive, hunt, pursue"), via a notion of "to weigh down on," hence "to insist, impel." The other possibility is that the PIE root is *ureg- "to follow a track." Related: Urged; urging.