The state of physical touching; communication or a relationship with someone; to get in touch with someone.
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Latin17th centurywell-attested
From Latin contactus (a touching, touch), the past participle noun of contingere (to touch, reach, affect), composed of con- (together, with) + tangere (to touch). Latin tangere derives from PIE *teh2g- (to touch, handle), which also produced Greek tetagona (having touched — a perfect form), Old English thaccian (to touch, pat — the ancestor of "thatch," originally to cover by touching/patching), and possibly Persian dadan (to give — via the concept of handing over). The compound literally means "a touching together" —
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Using 'contact' as a verb ('I'll contact you') was fiercelyopposed by language purists well into the mid-20th century. The editors of TheNew Yorker banned the usage, and style guides insisted on 'get in touch with' or 'communicate with.' The verb form has since become so thoroughly standard that the controversy is forgotten — a reminder that yesterday
contact, to be in contact) developed in the 18th century. The verb "to contact" (meaning to get in touch with someone) is a 20th-century American English
resisted by prescriptivists who insisted "contact" was only a noun — a battle the prescriptivists thoroughly lost. The optical sense (contact lens, 1888) refers to the lens touching the eye. The electrical sense (contact point) dates to the 19th century. The epidemiological sense (contact tracing) became globally familiar during the COVID-19 pandemic. The PIE root *teh2g- connects "contact" to "tangent" (a line that touches a curve), "tangible" (touchable), and "taste" (via Old French taster, to touch/feel). Key roots: tangere (Latin: "to touch"), con- (Latin: "together, with"), *tag- (Proto-Indo-European: "to touch, to handle").