Forms: 5–6 cohercion, -yon, 6 cohersion, 6–7 coertion, 6– coercion. [a. OF. cohercion, cohertion (mod.F. coercion), ad. L. coerctiōnem, coertiōnem, in mediæval spelling coerciōnem, a by-form (on the analogy of the simple arcēre, arctum, arctiōnem) of coercitiōn-em, f. coercit- ppl. stem of coercēre to restrain, coerce.
The current spelling is deceptive, suggesting formation from coerce + -ion. This no doubt led to the retention of the c when all other words with the mediæval spelling -cion, were altered to the Latin type in -tion. The pronunciation also is the same as that of words in -tion, -sion.]
I. The action of coercing.
1. Constraint, restraint, compulsion; the application of force to control the action of a voluntary agent.
1495. Act 11 Hen. VII., c. 36. Pream., Such … releasses … were made by compulcion, cohercion and emprisonement.
1531. Elyot, Gov., I. viii. That a noble childe, by his owne naturall disposition, and nat by coertion, may be induced to receiue perfect instruction in these sciences.
1537. Inst. Chr. Man, L v b. Noo man may kyll, or use suche bodily cohercion, but onely princis.
a. 1600. Hooker, Eccl. Pol., VIII. iii. § 4. To fly to the civil magistrate for coercion of those that will not otherwise be reformed.
1651. Hobbes, Leviath., III. xlii. 270. Winning men to obedience, not by Coercion, and Punishing; but by Perswasion.
1797. Cowper, Iliad, XX. 185. By strong coercion of our arms subdued.
1859. Mill, Liberty, i. 21. The moral coercion of public opinion.
1876. Green, Short Hist., vi. 283. Justice is degraded by … the coercion of juries.
1879. Whyte-Melville, Riding Recoll., ii. (ed. 7), 17. Judicious coercion, so employed that the brute obeys the man without knowing why.
b. Forcible restraint of (action).
1827. Hallam, Const. Hist. (1876), III. xviii. 388. A more uniform administration of justice in ordinary cases, a stricter coercion of outrage.
† c. The enforcement or execution of an ecclesiastical sentence. Obs.
1546. Act 37 Hen. VIII., c. 17, in Oxf. & Camb. Enactm., 23. May laufully execute and exercise all manner of jurisdiccion commonly called ecclesiasticall jurisdiccion and all censures and coertions apperteyninge … unto the same.
a. 1676. Hale, Common Law (1713), 34 (J.). The Coertion or Execution of the Sentence in Ecclesiastical Courts, is only by Excommunication of the Person contumatious.
2. Government by force, as opposed to that which rests upon the will of the community governed; the employment of force to suppress political disaffection and the disorder to which it gives rise. In modern English politics, chiefly applied to the suspension of ordinary constitutional liberties, and other exceptional legislation, from time to time applied to Ireland. Coercion Act, Coercion Bill: popular name for the Act of Parliament of 1833 and various subsequent ones.
As the word has had, in later times, a bad flavor, suggesting the application of force as a remedy, or its employment against the general sense of a community, it is now usually avoided by those who approve of the action in question.
1798. A. O’Connor, in Madden, United Irishmen, Ser. II. (1843), II. xiv. 322. The recall of Lord Fitzwilliam … the renewal of the reign of terror and coercion.
1832. Sir C. Napier, Life (Pall Mall Gaz. (1887), 19 Oct., 9/1). Coercion, damnable coercion! What has been the ruin of Ireland but this accursed coercion.
1833. Palmerston, in Sir H. Lytton Bulwer, Life (1870), II. x. 148. Few absolute Governments could by their own authority establish such a system of coercion as that which the freely chosen representatives of the people are placing at the command of the Government of this country.
1880. W. E. Forster, Let. Gladstone, 23 Nov., in Life, II. vi. 272. Like myself … driven with the utmost reluctance to take the side of coercion.
1888. Dk. Argyll, Lett., in Times, 9 Nov., 9/6. The cant which brands as ‘coercion’ that which is the duty of every Government—namely, the repression of crime and the defence of all men in their lawful occupations.
attrib. 1834. Palmerston, in Sir H. Lytton Bulwer, Life (1870), II. 205. The Coercion Bill will pass without much difficulty.
1848. W. J. O’N. Daunt, Recoll. O’Connell, II. App. 306. The Coercion Act of 1833 was passed by an English Parliament in defiance of a majority of Irish members.
1875. M. F. Cusack, Sp. Liberator, I. Introd. 9. One of his most powerful speeches was on the subject of Coercion Laws for Ireland.
1880. W. E. Forster, Let. Gladstone, 26 Dec. My draft Coercion, or, as it may be called … Protection Bill. Ibid. (1881), 20 Nov. My replacement by some one not tarred by the coercion brush.
3. Physical pressure; compression.
1830. Herschel, Stud. Nat. Phil., III. i. (1851), 233. Hay … reduced to such a state of coercion as to be easily packed on board transports.
1853. Kane, Grinnell Exp., xl. (1854), 370. We have passed, by the inevitable coercion of ice, from the highest regions of Arctic exploration … to the lowest.
1863. Fr. A. Kemble, Resid. in Georgia, 38. This violent coercion and tight bandaging.
II. † 4. The faculty or power of coercing or punishing; ‘coercitive power’ or ‘jurisdiction.’ (So L. coercitio.) Obs.
[c. 1189. Herbert de Boseham, Vita S. Thomæ, III. xxiv. in Materials Becket (Rolls), III. 268. Sacrosancta ecclesia … duos habet reges … duas jurisdictiones et duas coertiones.]
1523. Ld. Berners, Froiss., I. ccxii. 259. [They are] to be at the jurysdiction and cohercyon of the Churche of Rome.
1649. Bp. Hall, Cases Consc., III. vi. 279. In vaine is that power which is not inabled with coertion.
1700. Tyrrell, Hist. Eng., II. 907. They submitted themselves to the Jurisdiction and Coertion of the Archbishop of Canterbury.
b. fig. Conviction, power to compel assent.
1768. Sterne, Serm., iv. 67. The single hint of the Camel and what a very narrow passage he has to go, has more coercion in it, than all the seesaws of philosophy.
