English
coherent
Coherent comes from Latin cohaerēns ‘uniting, cohering, adhering’, from cohaereō ‘to cling, cleave or stick (closely) together’, and ultimately from haereō.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEhaereō‘to stick, stick fast’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEcohaereō‘to cling, cleave or stick (closely) together’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEcohaerēns‘uniting, cohering, adhering’
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600coherent
- Englishearliest quotation 1904same form
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEhaereō‘to stick, stick fast’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEcohaereō‘to cling, cleave or stick (closely) together’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEcohaerēns‘uniting, cohering, adhering’
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600coherent
- Englishearliest quotation 1904same form
Earliest quotation: 1904, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventure of the Second Stain: “At present she is unable to give any coherent…”
Equivalent to cohere + -ent
Latin haereō ‘to stick, stick fast’
Latin cohaereō ‘cohere, cling (closely) together, harmonise,…’
English cohere
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *gʰays- ‘to adhere, to stick, to be fixed’
adherence, hesitantly, adherent, 21 more
through Latin haereō ‘to stick, stick fast’
hesitate, hesitation, adhesive, hesitant, adhere, adhesion, hesitancy, 25 more
through Latin cohaereō ‘to cling, cleave or stick (closely) together’
Today it means
adj Unified; sticking together; making up a whole.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin haereō / coherent