cohere

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin cohaereō (“to cleave together; to be consistent”),^[2][3][4] formed from co- (“together”), a form of com, and haereō (“to stick, cling”),^[2][3][5][6] the verb behind hesitate.^[3][7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

To be consistent in substance or effect: 1598, in Bartholomew Yong's translation of Pérez's Diana.^[2][8][4] The Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English date the verb to the mid-16th century.^[9][10]

Semantic evolution

English took up the transferred Latin sense first and the literal one later:^[3] "to stick together" is recorded from the 1610s,^[3] with a first OED quotation in Bullokar's English Expositor (1616).^[2] It spread to things that are not material in 1603,^[2] to people who stay united in action in Hobbes's Leviathan (1651),^[2] and in 1725 to a substance or mass.^[2] Johnson (1755) gives four senses: to stick together, to follow regularly in discourse, to suit, and to agree, quoting Shakespeare's "Had time coher'd with place" for the third.^[11] Botany took it up in 1796,^[2] and a transitive use, to cause to hold together, is recorded from 1875,^[2] although the Shorter Oxford dates this rare use to the early 17th century.^[9] The derivative coherer, an early radio detector, is from the late 19th century.^[9]

Timeline

• 1598 – to be consistent in substance or effect.^[2][8]
• 1603 – of non-material things and societies, to hold together.^[2]
• 1616 – to stick together, of the parts of a substance.^[2]
• 1651 – of people, to remain united in action.^[2]
• 1725 – of a mass, to hold together.^[2]
• 1796 – in botany, to show cohesion.^[2]
• 1800 – to follow in the order of discourse.^[2]
• 1875 – transitive, to cause to hold together.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To hold or stick firmly together, especially of the parts of a substance: Damp clay coheres well.^[12][8][2]
2. To be logically connected or consistent; to form a unified whole: The chapters of the report fail to cohere.^[12][2][9]
3. Of people or societies, to remain united.^[2][9]
4. In physics, to be held together by molecular forces.^[12]
5. In botany, to show cohesion.^[8][2]
6. (rare) To cause to hold together.^[2][9]
7. (obsolete, before 1616–1634) To agree or combine congruously.^[2][9][11]

Word family

• coherer

Related words

• adhere
• coherence
• coherent
• cohesion
• cohesive
• inhere
• hesitate

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ 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.
12. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins