Etymologically
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junction

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈdʒʌŋk.ʃən/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin iūnctiō (“a joining, uniting”), perhaps influenced by French jonction,[2][3][4][5] from the past participle stem of iungō (“to join”) (see join and yoke),[2][3][4] from Proto-Indo-European *yeug- (“to join”).[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The act of joining, a union: 1711, in Addison's writing in The Spectator.[2][3][6]

Semantic evolution

Union of abstract things or of persons is from 1783.[6] A canal or railway joining others was a junction from 1796,[6] and Barnhart thinks the general sense, a place where railways or roads meet (1841), came from names such as Grand Junction Canal.[2][6] Etymonline dates that sense to 1836, in American English, first of railway tracks.[3] In electronics a junction is a zone between two regions of a semiconductor (1949).[6] Junction box is from 1885,[6] and juncture from the 14th century.[4]

Timeline

  • 1711 – the act of joining.[2][6]
  • 1796 – a junction canal or railway.[6]
  • 1836 – a place where tracks meet.[3]
  • 1885 – junction box.[6]
  • 1949 – a semiconductor junction.[6]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A place where routes, lines or roads meet or cross: a railway junction.
  2. (British) A point where traffic may leave or join a motorway.
  3. The act of joining or the state of being joined.
  4. (electronics) A boundary between regions of different electrical properties in a semiconductor.

Word family

  • junctional

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 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c 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 e f g h i j Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press