Etymologically
Log in

contiguus

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 20 October 2026 at 19:35. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [kɔnˈtɪ.ɡu.ʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [konˈtiː.ɡu.us][1]

Forms

contiguus (feminine contigua, neuter contiguum); first/second-declension adjective[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin contingō (“to touch, reach”) + -uus, from the stem ⟨contig-⟩.[2][1][3] contingō is a compound of tangō (“to touch”), which de Vaan traces to Proto-Indo-European *th₂-n-g- (“to touch”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lewis and Short note that it is not found before Augustus;[5] Köbler's first source is Virgil,[6] who uses it in the passive sense “within reach”, of a man come within range of a thrown spear.[5]

Semantic evolution

Its usual sense is “touching, adjoining, neighbouring”: in Ovid, Pyramus and Thisbe live in houses side by side (contiguas tenuere domos);[2][5] Tacitus uses it of peoples and of parts of the Circus next to the hills, and Pliny the Elder of the moon that seems to touch the mountains.[5][7] Grattius transfers it to closely connected arts.[2] Gellius has it of blows that hit their mark,[7] and Ammianus uses it of being close to a given age and of coming within range of a missile.[5][7]

In Ecclesiastical Latin it means near, contiguous.[8] Niermeyer gives a medieval sense “one's own”.[9] British writers used it of adjoining lands and also of times, “consecutive”, and made the neuter a noun for contiguity.[10] English formed contiguous from it in the 1610s.[11]

Timeline

  • 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it for “within reach” of a spear.[5][6]
  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of neighbouring houses.[2][5][6]
  • 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses it of neighbouring peoples.[5][7][6]
  • c. 390 AD – Ammianus Marcellinus uses it of a man close to his fiftieth year.[5][6]
  • 1610s – English forms contiguous from it.[11]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Adjacent, neighbouring, contiguous (to something).[2][5]
  2. Within reach (of a weapon).[5][7]
  3. (transferred) Closely connected, allied.[2]
  4. (Medieval Latin) One's own.[9]
  5. (Medieval Latin) Consecutive in time.[10]

Word family

  • incontiguus

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f 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. ^ 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 c d e f g h i j k Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  8. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  9. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  10. ^ a b Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
  11. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com