coterie

English

WOTD – 28 November 2015

Etymology

Borrowed from French coterie.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkəʊtəɹi/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkoʊtəɹi/, /ˌkoʊtəˈɹi/, [ˈkoʊɾəɹi], [ˌkoʊɾəˈɹi]

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

coterie (plural coteries)

1. A circle of people who associate with one another for a common purpose.

   Synonym: clique

   The new junior employee joined our merry after-hours coterie.

   A tightly knit coterie of executive powerbrokers made all the real decisions in the company.

   • 1842, [anonymous collaborator of Letitia Elizabeth Landon], chapter XXV, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 27:

     Baskets of game had reached her house, but not a single line, in his own hand, had met her eye. Better it should be so: Georgiana was not yet in a state to "lure the gentle tassel back," but no thanks to the chattering coterie whom she had courted for the sole purpose of rendering the marquis reassured on the subject of proper acquaintance.

   • 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 19, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:

     The verses were copied out, handed about, sneered at, admired, passed from coterie to coterie.

   • 2011 March 7, Brooks Barnes, Bill Carter, Michael Cieply, “Sheen Is Surrounded by a Coterie of Enablers”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN:

     In the case of a crack-smoking, prostitute-frequenting Mr. Sheen, many people in Hollywood say there is a long list of enablers: managers and agents and publicists; a coterie of assistants and party buddies; prostitutes, drug dealers and sex film stars; and the tabloid media, which have fed on Mr. Sheen’s antics for years.

   • 2016 March 3, David Thomson, “Biggest lesson of the 2016 Oscars? The Academy should be scrapped”, in The Guardian‎^[2]:

     So the thought of closing the Academy is not based in malice; the action might prove enlightening and refreshing. The old club coterie has very little excuse, and its loss would leave few casualties.

2. A communal burrow of prairie dogs.

   The coterie was located in the middle of our wheat field.

   • 2000, Edward O. Wilson, Sociobiology: The New Synthesis, page 473:

     The population of each coterie constantly changes over a period of a few months or years, by death, birth, and emigration. But the coterie boundary remains about the same, being learned by each prairie dog born into it.

   • 2001, Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, The Emperor's Embrace: The Evolution of Fatherhood:

     The odd part of prairie dog life is that this friendly state exists only among the members of each coterie, and does not extend between coteries.

   • 2009, Miriam Aronin, The Prairie Dog's Town: A Perfect Hideaway, page 22:

     Young prairie dogs in a coterie are brothers and sisters. They have the same father and sometimes the same mother. To find a mate from a different family, young prairie dogs must travel to a new area.

Derived terms

• coterieism
• petticoatery

 

Related terms

• cottage

 

Translations

circle of associates — see also clique

• Armenian: խմբակ (hy) (xmbak)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 小圈子 (zh) (xiǎoquānzi)

• Czech: spolek (cs) m, kruh (cs) m
• French: coterie (fr) f
• German: Zirkel (de) m
• Greek: κύκλος (el) m (kýklos)
• Japanese: 同人 (ja) (どうじん, dōjin)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: koteri n

• Russian: кружо́к (ru) m (kružók), круг (ru) m (krug)
• Serbo-Croatian: koterija (sh) f

clan of prairie dogs

• French: coterie (fr) f
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: flokk (no) m

Further reading

• Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “coterie”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
• “coterie”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from French coterie, from Medieval Latin coteria.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌkoː.təˈri/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: co‧te‧rie
• Rhymes: -i

Noun

coterie f (plural coteries or coterieën, diminutive coterietje n)

1. coterie, clique (exclusive circle of associates)

Related terms

• kot

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Medieval Latin coteria, from Old English cot.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɔ.tʁi/
• Rhymes: -i

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

coterie f (plural coteries)

1. (historical) feudal community of peasants
2. (figurative, also derogatory) coterie, clique, cabal, faction (small, exclusive group of individuals advancing shared interests)

   esprit de coterie ― factionalism

   coterie politique ― political faction

   coterie littéraire ― literary clique

   • 1879, George Sand, chapter 1, in Questions politiques et sociales:

     Elles savent que, pas plus qu’elles, je ne voudrais m’associer à une coterie politique, et me faire l’instrument de quelques ambitions de parti.

     They know that, no more than they, I would not want to associate with a political faction, and make myself the instrument of some party ambitions.

Descendants

• → Dutch: coterie
• → English: coterie
• → German: Koterie

Further reading

• “coterie”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
• coterie on the French Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^fr

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French coterie.

Noun

coterie f (plural coterii)

1. coterie

Declension

	singular			plural
	indefinite	definite		indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	coterie	coteria		coterii	coteriile
genitive-dative	coterii	coteriei		coterii	coteriilor
vocative	coterie, coterio			coteriilor