contiguous (2009-04-20)

Part of Speech: adjective

Pronunciation: [kên-'ti-gu-wês]

Definition: In space or time: (1) adjacent and touching, sharing a border or boundary; (2) in uninterrupted contact with one another or without interruption, as 24 contiguous hours or the 48 contiguous US states (excluding Alaska and Hawaii).

Usage: This word is probably used most often in reference to properties: "Sid insisted that his home be situated on a property contiguous to a golf course." However, its meaning may be extended to other sorts of properties, including those of the mind, "Mortimer cannot express two contiguous thoughts that follow logically one from the other."

Suggested Usage: The adverb for today's word is "contiguously." You have your choice of nouns, "contiguousness" or "contiguity" [kên-tê-'gu-ê-ti]. The latter word has the additional meaning of "a continuous series or unbroken mass," as the contiguity of shade in a dense forest.

Etymology: Today's word comes from Latin contiguus "touching" from contingere "to touch," made up of com- "with, by, near" + tangere "to touch." The original Proto-Indo-European root was *ta(n)g- "touch" with that nasal [n] that comes and goes from word to word. That is why we get "con-tig-uous" and con-ting-ent "dependent (upon)" from the same verb. Tangent "touching, contacting" and tangible "touchable, palpable" come from the same original root. When the government touches you for money, it "taxes" you, another word from "tangere" without the [n]. The direct Latin origin was taxare (tag-s-are) "to touch several times," the frequentative of "tangere"—since we are frequently touched in this way.