means The act or practice of doing what you are told to do by someone in authority, complying with a rule, command, or request.

from From Latin oboedientia, 'compliance,' built on oboedire, 'to obey'—itself a fusion of ob- ('toward, in the direction of') and audire ('to hear'). At its root, obedience is a kind of listening: to obey is literally to hear someone out and bend to them. The word came into English through Old French obedience in the medieval period, carrying its ear-shaped logic intact—you listen toward, then you do.