Cohort

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /ˈkəʊ.hɔː(ɹ)t/
• US IPA: /ˈkoʊ̯.hɔɹt/
• Hyphenation: co + hort

Origin

From Latin cohors (stem cohort-), perhaps via Old French cohorte.

Full definition of cohort

Noun

1. A group of people supporting the same thing or person.
• 1887 July, George John Romanes, , in Popular Science Monthly'', Volume 31,Coyness and caprice have in consequence become a heritage of the sex, together with a cohort of allied weaknesses and petty deceits, that men have come to think venial, and even amiable, in women, but which they would not tolerate among themselves.
• 1916, James Joyce, , Chapter III,A sin, an instant of rebellious pride of the intellect, made Lucifer and a third part of the cohort of angels fall from their glory.
• 1919, Albert Payson Terhune, , Chapter VI: Lost!,A lost dog? — Yes. No succoring cohort surges to the relief. A gang of boys, perhaps, may give chase, but assuredly not in kindness.
2. (statistics) A demographic grouping of people, especially those in a defined age group, or having a common characteristic.The 18-24 cohort shows a sharp increase in automobile fatalities over the proximate age groupings.
3. (military, history) Any division of a Roman legion, normally of about 500 men.Three cohorts of men were assigned to the region.
• 1900, Cicero, Evelyn Shuckburgh (translator), , 5.20,But he lost the whole of his first cohort and the centurion of the first line, a man of high rank in his own class, Asinius Dento, and the other centurions of the same cohort, as well as a military tribune, Sext. Lucilius, son of T. Gavius Caepio, a man of wealth, and high position.
• 1910, Arthur Conan Doyle, ,But here it is as clear as words can make it: 'Bring every man of the Legions by forced marches to the help of the Empire. Leave not a cohort in Britain.' These are my orders.
• 1913, , article in Catholic Encyclopedia,The cohort in which he was centurion was probably the Cohors II Italica civium Romanorum, which a recently discovered inscription proves to have been stationed in Syria before A.D. 69.
4. An accomplice; abettor; associate.He was able to plea down his sentence by revealing the names of three of his cohorts, as well as the source of the information.
5. Any band or body of warriors.
• MiltonWith him the cohort bright
  Of watchful cherubim.
6. (botany) A natural group of orders of plants, less comprehensive than a class.
7. A colleague.