Reconciling

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. The act of harmonizing divergent opinions includes negotiation and resolution of conflicts
2. Engaging in the reconciliation of opposing views necessitates mutual understanding and collaborative dialogue
3. The process of bringing together conflicting perspectives involves addressing disagreements and fostering agreement through discussion

Etymology: The verb "reconcile" was borrowed from Latin "reconciliare", meaning to bring back together or restore, built from "re-" (back, again) and "conciliare" (to bring together, to unite). That Latin verb in turn grew from "concilium", an assembly or council, which is also the source of the English "council". So the notion of reconciling began as the idea of people gathering back into one assembly, and the verb's sense of mending a rift carries that original picture of a group coming back together. The present participle "reconciling" simply takes the verb's ongoing sense of making two things agree, so it names the activity itself: working through disagreement until positions meet. Latin "conciliare" also gave English "conciliate", which kept a closer link to the idea of winning over an opponent.

Synonyms: resolving, settling, harmonizing

Antonyms: dividing, alienating