decoherence

Noun

(uncountable)

(engineering) The normal condition of sensitiveness in a coherer (disused).
(physics) The process by which a quantum system interacts with its environment in such a way that no interference between states of the system can be observed.

Origin

First attested 1902 (OED), in the context of electrical engineering, in the sense of the resetting of a coherer. Decoherence is the verbal noun, standing besides decohesion, derived from decohere (also attested from 1902), the de- negative of cohere (17th century).

English Wiktionary. Available under CC-BY-SA license.