[a. F. cohorte, ad. L. cohort-em (cohors) court, enclosure, company of soldiers, tenth part of a legion; f. co- together + hort-, found also in hort-us, cogn. with Gr. χόρτος, Eng. garth, gard-en, from a root meaning ‘to enclose’: see GARDEN. The living descendant of the L. word in F. is court, Eng. COURT.]
1. Rom. Antiq. A body of infantry in the Roman army, of which there were ten in a legion, each consisting of from 300 to 600 men; also applied to auxiliary troops of the same strength, and (later) to bodies of cavalry.
1489. Caxton, Faytes of A., II. v. 99. A cohorte of Macedonyens.
1569. T. Stocker, Diodorus Sic., II. x. 58. Foure hundred horse, deuided into three cohorts or troupes.
1781. Gibbon, Decl. & F., III. 41. Marcellinus … advanced … with the select cohorts, which were considered as the hope and strength of the army.
1879. Froude, Cæsar, xvii. 274. Sabinus … had … a few cohorts lately raised in Italy.
2. transf. a. A similar division of other armies. b. A band of warriors in general.
c. 1500. Melusine, 97. The kinge made to be take alle them of hys cohorte or company.
1667. Milton, P. L., XI. 127. The Cohort bright Of watchfull Cherubim.
1815. Byron, Hebr. Melodies, Sennacherib. The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold, And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold.
1827. Scott, Napoleon, xxvi. The legion of honour was to consist of … fifteen cohorts.
1874. H. R. Reynolds, John Bapt., iii. § 1. 134. Jehoiada gained his victory over Athaliah with a cohort of priests.
3. fig. A company, band; esp. of persons united in defence of a common cause.
1719. Bolingbroke, in Swift’s Corr., Wks. 1841, II. 543/1. I was apt to confound my acquaintance and my friends together…. I had a numerous cohort of the latter.
1858. Neale, Bernard de M., 33. The cohort of the Fathers Who kept the Faith below.
1871. Tyndall, Fragm. Sci. (ed. 6), II. xvi. 454. A small cohort of social regenerators.
4. Zool. and Bot. In some classifications, a large group superior to a natural order, but of no fixed grade; in Bot. usually = ALLIANCE 6.
1845. Lindley, Sch. Bot., iv. (1858), 24. No idea of the nature or limits of these cohorts can be formed from a consideration of the Flora of Europe alone.
1880. Gray, Struct. Bot., ix. § 1. 326. Cohort … is becoming established for a grade next above that of order.
