Dictionary

incoherency en · NOUN

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *né Proto-Indo-European *n̥- Proto-Italic *n̥- Latin in-bor. Middle English in- English in- Proto-Indo-European *ḱe? Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm Proto-Italic *kom Proto-Italic *kom- Latin con- Latin haereō Latin cohaereō Latin cohaerēns Proto-Indo-European *-(i)yós Proto-Italic *-ijos Proto-Italic *-ios Old Latin -ios Latin -ius Latin -ia Latin cohaerentia English coherency English incoherency From in- + coherency or incoherent + -cy.

Meanings

1. (uncountable, usually) The quality of being incoherent; lack of coherence.
   • Incoherency had overtaken his speech, but he was unaware of it. 1913, Norman Lindsay, A Curate in Bohemia, Sydney: N.S.W. Bookstall Co., published 1932, page 117:
   • […] Haste and Sickness made me rather venture on your good Nature, for the Pardon of a venial Fault, than put myself to the trouble of altering the Order of these Papers, and substituting new Transitions and Connections, in the room of those, with which I formerly made up the Chasms and Incoherency of the Tract, you now receive. 1686 (indicated as 168⁵⁄₆), R[obert] B[oyle], “The Conclusion”, in A Free Enquiry into the Vulgarly Receiv’d Notion of Nature; […], London: […] H. Clark, for John Taylor […], →OCLC, page 409:
   • ‘It can make no change. You do not understand my position,’ returned the doctor, with a certain incoherency of manner. 1886 January 5, Robert Louis Stevenson, “Dr. Jekyll Was Quite at Ease”, in Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC, page 32:
   • Pardon, madam, the haste and incoherency of scrawls penned at so trying a moment. 1785, Sophia Lee, The Recess, volume III, London: T. Cadell, part VI, page 260:
2. (countable, usually) A thing which is incoherent.
   • But that vvhich vvould beſt of all juſtifie me, and the ſeeming incoherencies of ſome parts of my Diſcourse, vvould be the noble Authors Piece it ſelf, becauſe of the Antitheſis, and the forms of his Applications. 1667, J[ohn] Evelyn, “To the Reader”, in Publick Employment and an Active Life, with Its Appanages, such as Fame, Command, Riches, Conversation, &c. Preferred to Solitude: […], London: […] J. M. for H[enry] Herringman […], →OCLC:
   • For besides the unavoidable incoherencies, which must be reconciled and adjusted; one may safely affirm, that all popular theology, especially the scholastic, has a kind of appetite for absurdity and contradiction. 1757, David Hume, “The Natural History of Religion,” section 11, in Four Dissertations, London: A. Millar, page 70
   • […] he took into his large moist palm the dry little hand of his friend, while they both broke out into the incoherencies of people meeting after a long time. 1887, William Dean Howells, chapter 1, in April Hopes, New York: Harper, page 3:

Forms

Synonyms

incoherence