reconciliation

See also: réconciliation

English
WOTD – 16 December 2020

Etymology

From Middle English reconciliacioun (“act of reconciling; state of accord or harmony;”) [and other forms],[1] from Anglo-Norman reconciliaciun, reconsiliacion, reconsiliaciun, and Middle French reconciliation, reconsiliacion, reconsiliation (“act of reconciling; result of this act; act of bringing about agreement or harmony; reconsecration of a desecrated place”) (modern French réconciliation), and from their etymon Latin reconciliātiō (“reinstatement, renewal, restoration; reconciliation”) (compare Late Latin reconciliātiō (“reconciliation; reconsecration of a desecrated place”), from reconciliāre + -iō (suffix forming abstract nouns from verbs).[2] Reconciliāre is the present active infinitive of reconciliō (“to bring together again, conciliate, reconcile, reunite; to bring back; to recover, re-establish, regain, restore, win back”), from re- (prefix meaning ‘again’) + conciliō (“bring together, unite; to gain; to win over; to recommend; to procure, purchase”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kelh₁- (“to call, cry, summon”)).

Pronunciation
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˌɹɛk(ə)nsɪlɪˈeɪʃ(ə)n/
  • Audio (Southern England)(file)
  • (General American) IPA(key): /ˌɹɛkənˌsɪliˈeɪʃ(ə)n/
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Rhymes: -eɪʃən
  • Hyphenation: re‧con‧ci‧li‧at‧ion

Noun

reconciliation (countable and uncountable, plural reconciliations)

  1. The re-establishment of friendly relations; conciliation, rapprochement.
    Synonyms: reconcilement, (noun) reconciling, (Britain, dialectal) saught
    Antonyms: irreconciliation, unreconciliation
    He longed for reconciliation with his estranged father, but painful memories made him feel unready to do so.
  2. (accounting) The process of comparing and resolving apparent differences between sets of accounting records, or between accounting records and bank statements, receipts, etc.
  3. Religious senses.
    1. (Christianity) The end of estrangement between a human and God as a result of atonement.
    2. (Christianity) The reconsecration of a desecrated church or other holy site.
    3. (Christianity, chiefly Roman Catholicism) Admission of a person to membership of the church, or readmission after the person has previously left the church.
    4. (Roman Catholicism) Short for sacrament of reconciliation (“a sacrament (sacred ritual) also called confession, involving contrition by a person, confessing sins to a priest, penance performed by the person, and absolution granted by the priest”).
  4. (Australia, Canada) The process of systemically atoning for the crimes and broken promises that a nation has historically committed against indigenous people.
    In order to redress the legacy of residential schools and advance the process of Canadian reconciliation, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission makes the following calls to action.

Derived terms
  • reconciliation loop
  • truth and reconciliation
Without prefix
With prefix re- only
With forms with a prefix before re-

Translations

References
  1. “reconciliāciǒun, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  2. “reconciliation, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, June 2009; “reconciliation, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading
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