contact

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ˈkɒn.tækt/, US /ˈkɑːn.tækt/^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin contāctus (“a touching”), perhaps through French contact,^[2][3][4] from the past participle of contingere (“to touch closely, border on”),^[4][5][6] from com- (“with, together”) and tangere (“to touch”),^[4][5] from Proto-Indo-European *tag- (“to touch, handle”).^[4][5] Latin contāctus was used especially of touching something unclean, contamination.^[4] It is related to contagion, contaminate and tangent.^[7][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The action or state of touching: 1626, in Bacon's Sylva Sylvarum.^[2][8][3]

Semantic evolution

The figurative sense “connection, communication”, as in to come in contact with, is from 1818, in Byron's Childe Harold.^[2][4][8] To make contact first referred to electric circuits, from about 1860.^[4][8] A person exposed to an infection by being near a sufferer is a contact from 1901,^[8] and a person who can be called on for help or information by 1931.^[4] As a signal before swinging an aircraft propeller, meaning the ignition is on, contact! was in use by 1913.^[4][8] The contact lens is first recorded in 1888, in a translation of an article by A. Eugen Fick,^[4] and contacts for contact lenses from 1957.^[4] The verb meant “to put in contact” in 1834,^[2][4] and “to get in touch with someone” from 1927, in American English.^[2][4][8]

Timeline

• 1626 – touching.^[2][8]
• 1818 – connection, communication.^[2]
• 1834 – verb, to put in contact.^[2]
• c. 1860 – electrical contact.^[8]
• 1888 – contact lens.^[4]
• 1901 – a person exposed to infection.^[8]
• 1927 – verb, to get in touch with.^[2]
• 1931 – a useful acquaintance.^[4]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The state or act of touching.
2. Communication or connection: keep in contact.
3. A person one knows who can help or give information.
4. A person who has been near someone with an infectious disease.
5. An electrical connection, or a part through which current passes.
6. (informal, plural) Contact lenses.

Verb

1. To get in touch with; to communicate with.
2. To bring or come into contact.

Word family

• contactual
• contactually
• precontact
• noncontact
• uncontacted
• contactor
• recontact

Related words

• contagion
• contaminate
• contingent
• contiguous
• tangent
• tangible
• tact
• intact

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
6. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press