coexistence

Etymology

It is formed from English co- + existence,^[2][3][4][5] and the OED compares French coexistence;^[2] the Shorter Oxford and the Middle English Dictionary instead take it from Medieval Latin coexistentia and Old French.^[6][7] The noun existence is from Old French existence, from existentia, from Latin exsistō (“to stand forth, emerge; to be”), formed from ex (“forth”) and sistō (“to cause to stand”), from Proto-Indo-European *sta- (“to stand, make or be firm”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Joint existence: the first record is in a text of 1459, copied about 1475, saying that pity and mercy may have coexistennce with all other vertues.^[7][3] Etymonline dates it to the mid-15th century;^[4] the OED's first quotation is from 1646, in Sir Thomas Browne's Pseudodoxia Epidemica,^[2][8] and Dictionary.com dates it to 1640–50.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Johnson (1755) defined it as having existence at the same time as another, and noted that it was usually followed by with, though Locke had used to.^[9] The verb coexist followed in the 1670s.^[4] In the 20th century the noun took on a political sense, the peaceful existence side by side of states with different ideologies:^[2][6] the OED dated it from 1920 in 1989,^[10] and the current OED and Etymonline from 1954, a term of the Cold War,^[2][4] often in the phrase peaceful coexistence.^[6] Etymonline dates the political use of the verb, especially of communism and the West, from 1931.^[4] In international law it is the peaceful continuation of nations or groups within a political and military balance.^[11]

Timeline

• 1459 – joint existence.^[7][3] The OED's first quotation is from 1646.^[2]
• 1920 – the peaceful existence side by side of states with different ideologies.^[10] The current OED and Etymonline date this sense to 1954.^[2][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. The state of existing together, at the same time or in the same place: the coexistence of wolves and deer in the valley.^[2][6][9]
2. The existence side by side, in mutual toleration, of states or groups with different ideologies or ways of life, often as peaceful coexistence.^[6][2][11]

Word family

• coexistent
• peaceful coexistence

Related words

• coexist
• existence
• exist

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
8. ^ Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
9. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b Garner, Bryan A., ed. (2004), Black's Law Dictionary, 8th ed., St. Paul, Minn.: Thomson West