contact

Definition

The act of touching physically; being in close association.

Etymology

From Latin contactus, from contingō (“I touch on all sides”), from tangō (“I touch”). Used in English since the 17th century.

Example Sentences

• "She mixed furniture with the same fatal profligacy as she mixed drinks, and this outrageous contact between things which were intended by Nature to be kept poles apart gave her an inexpressible thrill."
• "I haven't been in contact with her for years."
• "In the old days, […] he gave no evidences of genius whatsoever. He never read me any of his manuscripts, […], and therefore my lack of detection of his promise may in some degree be pardoned. But he had then none of the oddities and mannerisms which I hold to be inseparable from genius, and which struck my attention in after days when I came in contact with the Celebrity."