connascence

English

Alternative forms

• connascency

Etymology

con- +‎ nascence. In the software engineering sense introduced by Meilir Page-Jones.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kəˈnæsəns/

Noun

connascence (uncountable)

1. (obsolete) The birth of two or more things at the same time; A simultaneous coming into being.
   • 1900 December, Max., “Two Plays”, in The Saturday Review, page 681:

     In Mrs Craigie I take always an especial interest. She, and dramatist, and I, as dramatic critic, saw the light simultaneously; and our connascence has insired me with a sentimental wish that she should do great things.

   • 1914 November 6, “Aston Hall, Warwickshire, And John Thorpe, Architect”, in The Building News, page 579:

     […] and as a connascence of date it may be mentioned that he laid Kirby's foundation-stone in 1570.

   • 1933, Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, New approach to the Vedas, page 3:

     It should be observed that the connascence (sahajanma) [Sanskrit सहजन्मा (sahajanmā)] of Father-essence and Mother-essence, the "two forms" of Brahman, though metaphorically spoken of as "birth" (janma), is not a sexual-begetting […]

2. The state of being born into the same family, race, or group; a commonality of heritage or birthright.
   • 1817, Mary Grafton, Spiritual Gleanings: or select essays, with scripture mottos, page 114:

     No: had not Esther been involved in the edict against the Jews, by her connascence and her religious profession, Mordecai might have pleaded in vain for her perilous interference.

   • 1830, A Citizen of Massachusetts, Free Masonry: a poem in three cantos, page 81:

     Both sprung from Fraud— of common parentage. Yes, they are kin, and may connascence boast,— The Masons gaining what the Jesuits lost.

   • 1844 February 10, “An Epistle Expostulatory From X.Y.Z. Smith to the Rev Sydney Smith”, in The New World, volume 8, page 180:

     we, the thousand and one members of the great Smith Family, residing in the "real commercial city of New-York," ramous as we are, have risen as one man, to assert our connascence, to proclaim our unity, and rejoice in the interchange of fraternal sympathies.

3. (obsolete) The act of growing or developing together.
   • 1853, James Henry Skene, Anadol; the Last Home of the Faithful, page 216:

     By turns, and occasionally as it were by spontaneous connascence, were reflected on her speaking countenance, as on the clear and smooth surface of a bright mirror, the quick intelligence of a clever woman and the touching simplicity of an unsophisticated child, the vigorous energy of a heroine and the fascinating playfulness of a little fairy, the depth of mind that can penetrate and analyse everything and the inquisitiveness of heart to which all sensations are novel and interesting.

   • 1884, John H. Tr. M’mahon, The Metaphysics Of Aristotle, page 298:

     Wherefore, some animals continue to retain life after being divided: but, nevertheless, will all of them subsist in capacity when they may be one thing, and that which is continuous by nature, but not by force, or by connascence, that is, growth in conjunction with something else; for a thing of this kind is mutilation.

   • 1917, James Harrington Boyd, “Socialization of the Law”, in The American Journal of Sociology, volume 22, number 6, page 831:

     Socialization of the law by federal statutes reflected by the development of legal principles in connascence with the economic evolution of the United States of America.

4. (software engineering) A relationship between two or more elements of software in which changing one necessitates changing the others in order to maintain overall correctness; a metric for such a relationship.

   Coordinate terms: coupling, cohesion

   • 2000, Meilir Page-Jones, Fundamentals of Object-Oriented Design in UML, Addison-Wesley Professional, →ISBN, page 225:

     The construct of inheritance–although wildly popular in most object-oriented shops—may sometimes introduce raging connascence.

   • 2020, Mark Richards, Neal Ford, Fundamentals of Software Architecture, O'Reilly Media, →ISBN, page 52:

     For example, if two classes in the same component have connascence of meaning, it is less damaging to the code base than if two components have the same form of connascence. Developers must consider strength and locality together.

   • 2020, Piethein Strengholt, Data Management at Scale:

     Connascence, in the context of software engineering, refers to the degree of coupling between software components.

Usage notes

• In the software engineering sense often regarded as a generalization of coupling and cohesion, although there is some overlap of concepts.

Related terms

• connascent

Further reading

• connascence in An American Dictionary of the English Language, by Noah Webster, 1828.