coniungo

Forms

coniungō (present infinitive coniungere, perfect active coniūnxī, supine coniūnctum); third conjugation^[1] It is also written conjungō; an inscription from Pompeii has coiunxit.^[1][2]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin con- (“with, together”) + iungō (“to join, yoke”).^[2][1][3] De Vaan traces iungō to Proto-Italic *jung-e/o-, from the nasal present Proto-Indo-European *(H)iu-n-g- (“to yoke”), cognate with Sanskrit युनक्ति (yunákti, “yokes”), Ancient Greek ζεύγνυμι (zeúgnumi, “to yoke”) and Lithuanian jungti (“to yoke”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus.^[4] Varro speaks of body and soul quae fuerint coniūncta in homine, “which were joined in a man”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Coniungere is “to join together, connect, yoke”, also sexually and of words linked by conjunctions (Gellius: atque joins words).^[2][5][1] It is to place side by side, to build into one structure, of armies “to unite forces”, to compose by joining, to link two places, and to join in time.^[2] With people it is “to unite” in friendship or alliance, “to join in marriage” (Livy), and to form a friendship or relationship.^[2][1]

Church Latin glosses it “to join, bind together, unite”.^[6] English conjoin comes from it through Old French in the late 14th century.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it.^[4][8]
• 116–27 BC – Varro of body and soul joined in man.^[2][8]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of marrying daughters.^[2][8]
• late 14th century – English conjoin.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To join together, connect, unite; to yoke.^[2][5][1][6]
2. To place side by side; to combine into one.^[2][1]
3. (military) To unite (forces).^[2]
4. To unite (in friendship, kinship or alliance).^[2][1]
5. To join in marriage.^[2][1]

Word family

• coniugium
• coniūnctim
• coniūnctiō
• coniūnctīvus
• coniunctrix
• coniūnctum
• coniūnctus
• cūnctus

Related words

• coniūnx
• iungō
• English conjoin

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de