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contact

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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
  • 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