Etymologically
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cohesion

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /kəʊˈhiː.ʒən/[1]
  • US: /koʊˈhi.ʒən/[1]

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

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