coalitus

Forms

coalitus m (genitive coalitūs); fourth declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin coalēscō (“to grow together, unite”) + -tus, a fourth-declension noun of action.^[1][2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler's first author is Arnobius,^[4] who speaks of the coalitus of the human race, its fellowship or communion.^[5][3]

Semantic evolution

Ambrose uses it in the concrete sense of a growing together or concretion: seeds dissolving in the earth, the juice that becomes honey in the comb of wax.^[2] In Hegesippus' Latin adaptation of Josephus it is the union of many men living by robbery, and Arnobius also has it for habit or custom.^[2]

Etymonline traces English coalition to a Late Latin coalitus “fellowship” through French.^[6]

Timeline

• 297–310 AD – Arnobius uses it for the fellowship of the human race.^[5][4]
• c. 340–397 AD – Ambrose uses it of a growing together.^[2][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (Late Latin) A growing together, concretion, union.^[2][3]
2. (Late Latin) Communion, fellowship.^[5][1]
3. (Late Latin) Habit, custom.^[2]

Usage notes

Coalitus is also the perfect participle of coalēscō.^[5][2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
4. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com