propinquity

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English propinquite,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French propinquité (“close kinship”)^[5][3][4][6] and directly borrowed from Latin propinquitās (“nearness, proximity, kinship, closeness”),^[5][3][7][2] from propinquus (“near, neighbouring”),^[5][3][6][8] from prope (“near”) with the suffix -inquus,^[4][9] also found in longinquus (“long, remote”).^[4] Etymonline calls the suffix's meaning unclear, and takes the adverb from Proto-Indo-European *propro (“on and on, ever further”), with loss of the second -r- by dissimilation, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *per- (“forward”).^[3] Klein instead gives Proto-Indo-European *pro-qwe, enlarged from Proto-Indo-European *prō- (“before, forward, forth”).^[4] The Old French word dates from the first half of the 13th century,^[5] and Anglo-Norman propinquité (“nearness, closeness”) from 1291–92.^[10] Compare Spanish propincuidad and Italian propinquità.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Nearness of blood, kinship: about 1380, in Chaucer's translation of Boethius, his only use of the word.^[7][3][11] The OED dates the manuscript to before 1425, the same date as its first record of physical nearness, in a translation of Guy de Chauliac.^[5][2]

Semantic evolution

Latin already used the word for nearness in space and in time, kinship and closeness of association,^[5] and English has kept the same senses side by side.^[5][8] Johnson (1755) lists "nearness; proximity; neighbourhood", then nearness of time, then kindred, quoting King Lear for the last: Propinquity and property of blood.^[12] The sense "affinity" is now archaic in Merriam-Webster Unabridged,^[8] and the Oxford Dictionary of English labels the sense of place formal and that of kinship technical.^[13] Law keeps kindred as a specific use.^[14]

Timeline

• c. 1380 – kinship, nearness in relationship.^[7][3][5]
• before 1425 – nearness in space.^[5][2][7]
• before 1500 – nearness in nature, similarity, affinity, in Norton's Ordinal of Alchemy.^[5]
• 1611 – nearness in time, in Swinburne.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. (formal) Nearness in place; proximity: Their friendship grew out of the propinquity of their desks.^{[8][13][15][5]}
2. Nearness in time; imminence.^[8][16][5]
3. (technical) Nearness of blood; kinship: degrees of propinquity.^{[8][13][15][14]}
4. (archaic) Closeness in nature, disposition or interests; affinity.^[8][5][2]

Word family

• propinquitous

Related words

• proximity
• approximate
• approach
• reproach
• rapprochement
• longinquity

Usage notes

Ian Fleming used Nothing propinks like propinquity as a chapter heading in Diamonds are Forever (1956), and the phrase was popularised in the 1960s by the American diplomat George Ball.^[3]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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 g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
8. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
11. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b c Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ a b Garner, Bryan A., ed. (2004), Black's Law Dictionary, 8th ed., St. Paul, Minn.: Thomson West
15. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
16. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins