transcription, транскрипция: [ ˌkəuhæbɪˈteɪʃən ]
noun (Politics) Coexistence or co-operation in government between members of opposing parties, especially when one is the President and the other the Prime Minister. Hence, by extension, the coexistence of different currencies in a single monetary system. Also as an intransitive verb, cohabit. Etymology: Borrowed into English from French cohabitation. In both languages, this is a figurative use of cohabitation in the sense 'living together as though man and wife, although not actually married'. Political cohabitation is seen as a marriage of inconvenience brought about by the fickleness of the voting public. History and Usage: The word was first used in this sense in English in a report of a speech made by French President Val÷ry Giscard d'Estaing in 1978, during a period of coalition government in France. As the eighties progressed, the French voting public tended to favour a Socialist President (Franúois Mitterrand) in combination with a conservative Prime Minister, making cohabitation a fact of life in French politics. During the discussion of EMS and EMU° in the late eighties, the word was used by journalists in a transferred sense to refer to the coexistence of different standards for European currencies. Like France, Portugal is adjusting to the 'cohabitation' of a Socialist president and a conservative Prime Minister. Economist 5 Apr. 1986, p. 57 Via EMS, the D-mark became Europe's leading currency, while the yen and the dollar cohabited. Business Apr. 1990, p. 43