cohaerentia

Forms

cohaerentia f (genitive cohaerentiae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin cohaerēns + -ia, from the present participle of cohaereō (“to stick together”).^[1][2] The OLD sets it beside the adverb cohaerenter.^[3] The verb is co- with haereō (“to stick”), which goes back to Proto-Italic *χais-ē-.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL dates it from Cicero on;^[2] in De natura deorum he uses it of the organic structure of the universe.^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

It stayed rare.^[5] Vitruvius uses it of the four elements combining together, Gellius of the contiguity of life and death, and Macrobius of a continuous description of regions.^[3][5][2] Inscriptions use the plural for estates attached to an inheritance,^[2] and Medieval Latin charters use the plural for the appurtenances and adjacent lands of an estate.^[6] French formed cohérence from it in the 16th century, which gave English coherence.^[7]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of the structure of the universe.^[3][5][8]
• c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius uses it of the elements combining together.^[3][8]
• c. 165 AD – Gellius uses it of the contiguity of life and death.^[3][5][8]
• 824 – Charters use it.^[8]
• 1580s – English borrows it, through French, as coherence.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A sticking or combining together, cohesion.^[3][9]
2. Organic structure, coherence.^[3][5]
3. Contiguity in time; continuity.^[3][2]
4. (Medieval Latin, in the plural) Appurtenances of an estate; adjacent lands.^[6]

Related words

• cohaereō
• English coherence

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
9. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson