rapprochement

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English[edit]

WOTD – 12 June 2018

Etymology[edit]

Unadapted borrowing from French rapprochement (“act or process of getting closer together; link (between two things)”).

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

rapprochement (plural rapprochements)

  1. The reestablishment of cordial relations, particularly between two countries; a reconciliation.
    It was the Nixon administration that saw the rapprochement between the United States and China.
    • 1869 December 11, “The Changes in the Government of France (Die Neue Freie Presse—Vienna, Nov. 30.)”, in Public Opinion […] , volume XVI, number 429, London: Printed by Charles Wyman, […] , →OCLC, page 738, column 2:
      The inauguration of a liberal order of things, a rapprochement of the [First French] Empire with constitutionalism and Parliamentary government, had been expected from the Speech from the Throne now just given. This expectation is completely disappointed by the speech. …
    • 1892 February, James Sulley, “Is Man the Only Reasoner?”, in The Popular Science Monthly, volume XL, New York, N.Y.: Popular Science Pub. Co., →OCLC, page 506:
      Not forever, however, was the animal world to suffer this indignity at the hands of man. Thinkers themselves prepared the way for a rapprochement between the two. More particularly the English philosophers from [John] Locke onward, together with their French followers, […] may be said by a sort of leveling-down process to have favored the idea of a mental kinship between man and brute.
    • 1926 December 2, “‘No victors’ if European war starts: French foreign policy: China and Italy”, in The Daily Examiner, volume 18, number 2721 (New Series), Grafton, N.S.W.: Printed and published by William Frederick Blood, of Grafton, for the Daily Examiner, Limited, [...], →OCLC, page 5:
      M. [Aristide] Briand, in a statement on the French foreign policy said a lasting European peace was impossible without a Franco-German rapprochement.
    • 1940 January, “Italy’s Living Room”, in The Living Age, volume 357, number 4480, New York, N.Y.: The Living Age Company Inc., →OCLC, section II (Eyes to the Balkans: Translated from Europe Nouvelle, Paris Political and Literary Weekly), page 475, column 1:
      Attempts at a Hungarian–Yugoslavian rapprochement are not a recent matter, and Italy has always approved of them. But in the past these attempts had been made with the idea of breaking up the Little Entente and isolating Yugoslavia.
    • 1989, David Boucher, “The New Leviathan in Context”, in The Social and Political Thought of R. G. Collingwood, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 27:
      Further, I argue that [Robin George] Collingwood's final work is in fact the culmination of his persistent endeavour to bring about rapprochements between philosophy and history, and between theory and practice.
    • 2018 June 4, Dominique Mosbergen, “Another Summit Snafu: Who’s Going to Pay for Kim Jong Un’s Singapore Hotel Room? […] ”, in HuffPost‎[1]:
      “These norms were laid in the early 2000s, when Seoul’s so-called sunshine policy took off,” Sung-Yoon Lee, a Korea expert at Tufts University, told The Washington Post last week, referring to a rapprochement policy adopted by South Korea.
    • 2023 March 24, Eric Schmitt, “Conflict in Syria Escalates Following Attack That Killed a U.S. Contractor”, in The New York Times‎[2], →ISSN:
      The fighting […] threatens to upend recent efforts to de-escalate tensions across the wider Middle East, whose rival powers, including Iran and Saudi Arabia, have made steps toward rapprochement in recent days after years of turmoil.

Alternative forms[edit]

Translations[edit]

Further reading[edit]

French[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From rapprocher (“to near, to approach”) +‎ -ment.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

rapprochement m (plural rapprochements)

  1. act or process of getting closer, nearer together
  2. link (between two things)
    faire le rapprochement ― to put two and two together, to make the connection

Further reading[edit]

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