cohesion

Etymology

The OED, Etymonline and Klein take it as borrowed from French cohésion,^[2][3][4] from Latin cohaesiō (“a sticking together”),^[3][4] a form that the OED marks as unrecorded, a noun of action formed on cohaesus, the past participle of cohaereō (“to stick together, cling together”).^[2][3][5] Merriam-Webster, the Oxford Dictionary of English and the Shorter Oxford instead form it in English, from the Latin participial stem cohaes- or from cohere, on the pattern of adhere and adhesion.^[6][7][8][9] The Latin verb is formed from com- (“together”) and haereō (“to stick, adhere”),^[3] which is also the source of hesitation.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The action of sticking together, especially of the particles of a body: 1678, in Hobbes's Decameron Physiologicum.^[2] Merriam-Webster dates the word to 1660,^[6] and Etymonline to the 1670s.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The word belonged at first to natural philosophy: Johnson (1755) defined it as the act of sticking together and quoted Newton on the cohesion of particles.^[10] It was used figuratively, of a union that is not material, from about 1690, in Locke.^[2] In physics it came to mean specifically the force by which the molecules of a body hold together, as distinguished from adhesion between different bodies,^[2][11] and in botany, from 1835, the union of like organs, such as petals.^[2][5] Merriam-Webster's examples show the figurative use for social and political unity, as of a tribe or of nations.^[6]

Timeline

• 1678 – the act of sticking together; the force holding the particles of a body together.^[2]
• c. 1690 – figurative, a union that is not material, in Locke.^[2]
• 1835 – in botany, the union of like organs.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act or state of sticking together; unity: The coach worried about the team's lack of cohesion.^{[11][6][5][2]}
2. (physics) The force of attraction between the molecules of a substance that holds it together, as distinguished from adhesion.^[11][5][2]
3. (botany) The union of similar parts of a plant, such as petals grown together.^{[11][5][6][2]}

Word family

• cohesive
• cohesively
• cohesiveness
• cohesionless
• noncohesion

Related words

• coherence
• cohere
• coherent
• adhesion
• adhere
• 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins