cohort

What it means

1. A group of people supporting the same thing or person.

   A sin, an instant of rebellious pride of the intellect, made Lucifer and a third part of the cohorts of angels fall from their glory.

   1916, James Joyce, chapter III, in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, New York, N.Y.: B[enjamin] W. Huebsch, →OCLC, page 154

   2 more examples

   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.

   1887 July, George John Romanes, “Mental Differences of Men and Women”, in Popular Science Monthly, volume 31

   A lost dog? — Yes. No succoring cohort surges to the relief. A gang of boys, perhaps, may give chase, but assuredly not in kindness.

   1919, Albert Payson Terhune, chapter VI, in Lad: A Dog, Lost!

2. mathematicsA 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 more examples

   The elderly are market segments, by generations or microgenerations within age cohorts or by historical experience as personality types.

   2002, Merry White, Perfectly Japanese: Making Families in an Era of Upheaval, page 169

   “Zillennials refer to a small cohort born between the early 1990s and the early 2000s,” said Deborah Carr, professor of sociology and director of the Center for Innovation in Social Science at Boston University. “They’re on the cusp of Gen Z and millennial, thus the mash-up label of zillennial.”

   2023 May 10, Terry Ward, “Zillennials: The newest micro-generation has a name”, in CNN

   Regularly eating red and processed meats in particular is associated with a higher risk of type 2 diabetes, according to an analysis of data from 31 study cohorts published Tuesday in the journal The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology.

   2024 August 20, Madeline Holcombe, “There is a link between the meat you eat and a chronic disease, according to new research”, in CNN

3. Ancient RomehistoricalgovernmentAny division of a Roman legion, normally of about 500 or 600 men (equalling about six centuries).

   Holonym: legion

   5 more examples

   Meronyms: maniple, century

   Three cohorts of men were assigned to the region.

   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.

   1900, Marcus Tullius Cicero, translated by Evelyn Shuckburgh, Letters to Atticus, section 5.20

   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.

   1908, F. Bechtel, “Cornelius”, in Charles G[eorge] Herbermann, Edward A[loysius] Pace, Condé B[enoist] Pallen, Thomas J[oseph] Shahan, John J[oseph] Wynne, editors, The Catholic Encyclopedia: An International Work of Reference on the Constitution, Doctrine, Discipline, and History of the Catholic Church, volume IV (Cland–Diocesan), New York, N.Y.: Robert Appleton Company, →OCLC, page 375, column 2

   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.

   1910, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Last of the Legions

In a sentence

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.

1887 July, George John Romanes, “Mental Differences of Men and Women”, in Popular Science Monthly, volume 31

Where it comes from

1. Old Frenchcohorte
2. Latincohors
3. Englishcohort

From Latin cohors (stem cohort-); borrowed into Old English as coorta, but reintroduced into Middle English as cōhort and chōors via Old French cohorte. Doublet of court.