Etymologically
Log in

Koalition

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 20 October 2026 at 19:49. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • /koaliˈt͡si̯oːn/[1]

Forms

Koalition f (genitive Koalition, plural Koalitionen)[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French coalition, from English coalition, borrowed in the 18th century.[2][3][4] The English word goes back to Medieval Latin coalitio (“union, assembly”), formed from Latin coalēscō (“to grow together, unite”), from con- and alēscō (“to grow up”), from alō (“to nourish”).[2][4] Kluge cites Late Latin coalitus (“union”) as the model.[2] Wiktionary takes the German word straight from English.[1] The same word is Dutch coalitie and Swedish koalition.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Paul's first record is from the lexicographer Kruse in 1769, in the sense “union, joining”.[5] It was at first a term of chemistry for the union of substances, a sense that Wieland, Schiller and Goethe used figuratively, as when Schiller in 1795 asked whether a coalition of the ancient poetic character with the modern one could be imagined.[5][6][2]

Semantic evolution

The political sense was first English (early 18th century), and came into German at the end of the century, largely through travel accounts.[4] After the French Revolution the word was used of the alliances of European powers against France, and Brockhaus noted in 1814 that it had often been used in recent history in this way.[6][5] Only late did it come to mean an alliance of parties to form a government, now its main sense, with compounds such as Koalitionsregierung and Koalitionsfreiheit.[2][5] The verb koalieren “to form a coalition” replaced koalisieren and koaleszieren around 1900.[5][4]

Timeline

  • 1769 – First record, in Kruse.[5]
  • 1794 – Lichtenberg uses it of a union in a Hogarth print.[6]
  • 1800 – An encyclopedic dictionary notes its political use since the French Revolution.[6]
  • 1814 – Brockhaus describes its use for the alliances against France.[6]
  • About 1900 – koalieren replaces koalisieren.[5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. An alliance, especially of political parties, to pursue common aims; a coalition: Die beiden Parteien bildeten eine Koalition.;[7][1] große Koalition, a coalition of the two largest parties.[7][1]
  2. An alliance of states.[8]

Word family

  • Koalitionsregierung
  • Koalitionspartner
  • Koalitionsvertrag
  • koalieren

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 510
  3. ^ Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 451
  4. ^ a b c d Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
  6. ^ a b c d e Schulz, Hans; Basler, Otto, et al. (1913–1988), Deutsches Fremdwörterbuch, 7 vols., Strasbourg / Berlin: Trübner / De Gruyter; 2nd ed., ed. Gerhard Strauß et al. (1995–), Berlin / New York: De Gruyter; via OWID, Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache
  7. ^ a b Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  8. ^ Duden. Das Fremdwörterbuch (2007), 9th ed., Duden vol. 5, Mannheim: Dudenverlag