adjoin

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English ajoinen, later adjoinen,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French ajoindre (“to add, attach, join”), through its stem ajoin-,^{[5][3][6][7][8]} from Latin adiungō (“to connect, attach, add, associate”).^{[5][3][9][10]} The verb Anglo-Norman ajoindre is recorded from about 1141,^[11] and the Old French form from the second half of the 12th century.^[5] The Latin verb is formed from ad- (“to”) and iungō (“to join”),^[5][6][9] from a nasalized form of Proto-Indo-European *yeug- (“to join”).^[6][9] The spelling with d is a remodelling after the Latin, in English from the 1400s^[3][5] and in French, where the word became adjoindre, from the 16th century.^[6][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

To join or attach: about 1303 in Mannyng's Handlyng Synne ("To þe þrydde hyt ys a ioynt"), in a manuscript of before 1400.^[5][2][3] The OED's earliest sense by manuscript date is "to enjoin, charge, impose", before 1325 in the statutes of the realm;^[5] it notes that the French verb in this use could be a variant of enjoindre, the source of enjoin.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Old French already used the verb both for adding or attaching and, by the end of the 13th century, for being next to something;^[5] in English the second use appears in William of Palerne, before 1375.^[5][6] The Shorter Oxford labels "join, unite" archaic,^[8] and Collins puts "be next to" first.^[12] Johnson (1755) separates the active "to join to; to unite to", illustrated by remarks adjoined as a note in Watts, from the neuter "to be contiguous to", as in Dryden's "th' adjoining fane".^[13] The mathematical use, from 1888, probably follows German zuordnen.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1303 – to join, attach, ally.^[5][2][3]
• before 1325 – to enjoin, charge, impose (obsolete by 1865).^[5]
• before 1375 – to be next to or very near a thing or place.^[5]
• before 1425 – to add or append as a supplement; to appoint in a subordinate role.^[5]
• 1425 – intransitive, to be adjacent, to share a border.^[5]
• 1483 – intransitive, to combine with or accompany something (obsolete by 1678).^[5]
• c. 1523 – intransitive with on, to or with, to lie next to.^[5]
• 1888 – in mathematics, to join a set or element with a set.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To lie next to or be in contact with; to abut: Our orchard adjoins the old churchyard.^[12][4][5]
2. Of two things, to lie side by side or share a boundary: The two rooms adjoin.^[5][8]
3. To join or attach physically to something.^[12][4][8]
4. To add or append as a supplement.^[4][5]
5. (mathematics) To add an element to a set or domain so as to form another complete one.^[4][5]
6. (obsolete, 1483–1678) To come into union; to combine or associate with something.^[5][8]

Word family

• adjoining

Related words

• adjunction
• join
• adjunct
• enjoin
• yoke

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
12. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.