juxtapose

Etymology

It is borrowed from French juxtaposer,^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} formed from Latin iūxtā (“close by, beside”) and poser (“to place”).^[2][3][5][6] The OED finds the French verb in 1835, citing Hatzfeld and Darmesteter;^[2] Etymonline dates it to the 18th century.^[8] Merriam-Webster and Collins take the English verb instead as a back-formation from juxtaposition,^{[9][10][11][12]} Merriam-Webster Unabridged adding that it followed such pairs as interposition and interpose;^[9][13] Etymonline leaves both explanations open.^[8] The noun is recorded from 1661 in the OED, which takes it from French juxtaposition;^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates it to 1654 and forms it from the Latin adverb and English position.^[9] Barnhart dates the noun to 1665 and the French one to 1664.^[4][5] The Latin adverb iūxtā is a contraction of an unattested superlative *iugista, from an adjective *iugos (“closely connected”), from Proto-Indo-European *yeug- (“to join”),^[8][3] the root of yoke. Old French poser, the source of pose, continues Late Latin pausō (“to halt, rest”).^[8][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

To place two or more things side by side or close together: 1826 in Etymonline.^[8] The OED's first quotation is from 1851, in a paper by H. W. Torrens in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,^[2] the year Merriam-Webster also gives.^[9][10]

Semantic evolution

The verb came nearly two centuries after the noun juxtaposition, which the OED records from 1661, in Joseph Glanvill's Vanity of Dogmatizing.^[2] The noun briefly had a technical sense in crystallography, the union of twin crystals along a plane (1883–1917).^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged notes that things are often juxtaposed to create an interesting effect or to show how alike or unlike they are,^[9] and the American Heritage Dictionary stresses comparison and contrast.^[14][3]

Timeline

• 1826 – to place things side by side or close together.^[8] The OED and Merriam-Webster first record it in 1851.^[2][9]

Meanings

Verb

1. To place two or more things side by side or close together, especially to compare or contrast them: The exhibition juxtaposes the early sketches with the finished canvases.^{[9][14][11][2]}

Related words

• juxtaposition
• pose
• position
• joust
• yoke

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
5. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ a b Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
13. ^ Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam
14. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin