Etymograph

English

contact

Contact comes from Latin contactus, from tangō ‘to touch’, ultimately from PIE *teh₂g- ‘to touch’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*teh₂g-‘to touch’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*tangō‘to touch’reconstructed
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtangō‘to touch’
  4. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEcontingō‘to touch on all sides’
  5. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEcontactus
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1897contact

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*teh₂g-‘to touch’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*tangō‘to touch’reconstructed
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtangō‘to touch’
  4. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEcontingō‘to touch on all sides’
  5. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEcontactus
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1897contact

Earliest quotation: 1897, Winston Churchill: “In the old days, […] he gave no evidences…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *teh₂g- ‘to touch’

taste, integrity, integrate, attain, taxis, taxonomy, tama, talon, ataxia, talus, tactician, thwack, 31 more

through Proto-Italic *tangō ‘to touch’

intangible, 9 more

through Latin tangō ‘to touch’

tangible, tame, contingent, tangent, tactile, 10 more

through Latin contingō ‘to touch on all sides’

contiguous, 3 more

Today it means

noun The act of touching physically; being in close association.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *teh₂g- / contact

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