Koalition German · revision 35766

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=1769|origins=la alō}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * /koaliˈt͡si̯oːn/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''Koalition''' ''f'' (genitive Koalition, plural Koalitionen)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[bor|fr|coalition]], from [[en|coalition]], borrowed in the 18th century.^(Kluge 2011|510)^(Duden 7 2020|451)^(Pfeifer 1993) The English word goes back to [[la-med|coalitio|t=union, assembly]], formed from [[la|coalēscō|t=to grow together, unite]], from [[m|la|con-]] and [[m|la|alēscō|t=to grow up]], from [[m|la|alō|t=to nourish]].^(Kluge 2011|510)^(Pfeifer 1993) Kluge cites Late Latin [[m|la-lat|coalitus|t=union]] as the model.^(Kluge 2011|510) Wiktionary takes the German word straight from English.^(Wiktionary) The same word is [[nl|coalitie]] and [[sv|koalition]].^(Kluge 2011|510)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Paul's first record is from the lexicographer Kruse in 1769, in the sense “union, joining”.^(Paul 2002) It was at first a term of chemistry for the union of substances, a sense that Wieland, Schiller and Goethe used figuratively, as when Schiller in 1795 asked whether a coalition of the ancient poetic character with the modern one could be imagined.^(Paul 2002)^(DFWB)^(Kluge 2011|510)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ The political sense was first English (early 18th century), and came into German at the end of the century, largely through travel accounts.^(Pfeifer 1993) After the French Revolution the word was used of the alliances of European powers against France, and Brockhaus noted in 1814 that it had often been used in recent history in this way.^(DFWB)^(Paul 2002) Only late did it come to mean an alliance of parties to form a government, now its main sense, with compounds such as ''Koalitionsregierung'' and ''Koalitionsfreiheit''.^(Kluge 2011|510)^(Paul 2002) The verb ''koalieren'' “to form a coalition” replaced ''koalisieren'' and ''koaleszieren'' around 1900.^(Paul 2002)^(Pfeifer 1993)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 1769 – First record, in Kruse.^(Paul 2002)

+ * 1794 – Lichtenberg uses it of a union in a Hogarth print.^(DFWB)

+ * 1800 – An encyclopedic dictionary notes its political use since the French Revolution.^(DFWB)

+ * 1814 – Brockhaus describes its use for the alliances against France.^(DFWB)

+ * About 1900 – ''koalieren'' replaces ''koalisieren''.^(Paul 2002)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # An [[m|en|alliance]], especially of political parties, to pursue common aims; a [[m|en|coalition]]: ''Die beiden Parteien bildeten eine Koalition.'';^(Duden GWDS 1999)^(Wiktionary) ''große Koalition'', a coalition of the two largest parties.^(Duden GWDS 1999)^(Wiktionary)

+ # An alliance of states.^(Duden Fremdwörterbuch 2007)

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+ ==Word family==

+ * [[Koalitionsregierung]]

+ * [[Koalitionspartner]]

+ * [[Koalitionsvertrag]]

+ * [[koalieren]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}