Etymologically
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adjacent

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 16 October 2026 at 14:18. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /əˈd͡ʒeɪ.sənt/[1]

Etymology

It is Middle English, borrowed from Latin adjacēns (“lying near”), the present participle of adjacēre (“to lie near, border on”),[2][3][4] partly through Anglo-French agisaunt,[5] from ad-, near, and jacēre, to lie, rest, related to jacere, to throw (see jet),[2][3] from PIE Proto-Indo-European *ye- (“to throw, impel”).[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lying near, bordering: before 1420, in Lydgate's Troy Book;[2] about 1430 in the OED.[6]

Semantic evolution

The OED notes that it does not necessarily mean touching.[6] Etymonline adds that adjacent properly means near but not necessarily in contact, while adjoining means touching, and that it is used only of things, never of persons or animals.[3] As a noun, an adjoining part, it is from 1610.[6] In mathematics, of vertices or edges of a graph, joined directly, is a later technical sense.[7]

Timeline

  • before 1420 – lying near.[2]
  • 1610 – the noun.[6]

Modern meaning

Adjective

  1. Close to or lying near; neighbouring.
  2. Next to; adjoining.
  3. (mathematics) Of two vertices of a graph, joined by an edge, or of two edges, meeting at a vertex.

Word family

  • adjacently
  • subadjacent
  • unadjacent
  • adjacency
  • nonadjacent
  • adjacent angle

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ a b c d Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins