contigu

Forms

contigu (feminine contiguë or contigüe, masculine plural contigus, feminine plural contiguës or contigües)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin contiguus (“touching, adjoining”),^[2][3][4][5] from contingō (“to touch, reach”), from cum (“with”) and tangō (“to touch”).^[3][6] In Latin it was used of space and, in Late Latin, also of time.^[3][2] Bloch and Wartburg date it to about 1360, the TLFi to about 1377.^[4][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Nicole Oresme uses it about 1377 in Le Livre du ciel et du monde, in the spatial sense “touching, adjoining”.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

French took over the Latin spatial sense of something that touches another thing with no gap between them.^[3] In the 16th century Palissy, Montaigne and du Bellay use it.^[6] Since 1790 it has also been used abstractly, of things close in time or in their relations,^[3][2] while from the 19th century the spatial sense was taken up by biology, geology, physics and computing.^[3] The noun contiguïté, borrowed from Late Latin in the 15th century, followed the same course.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1377 – Used by Nicole Oresme.^[2][7]
• 1790 – First figurative use, in Saint-Martin's L'Homme de désir.^[2]
• before 1842 – Stendhal uses it of two periods close in time.^[8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Adjoining, touching another thing with no space between: deux parcelles contiguës, une pièce contiguë au salon.^[9][2]
2. (figurative) Close in time or in meaning: deux époques contiguës.^[8][9]
3. (geometry) Angles contigus, angles with a side in common.^[6]

Word family

• contiguïté

Related words

• contact
• contingent
• contagion
• tangible
• Latin contiguus

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 2, 1106a
6. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
9. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert