Adjoin

Part of speech: verb

Pronunciation: /əˈd͡ʒɔɪn/

Definitions

1. To be situated next to and share a boundary with another object or area
2. To lie adjacent to another thing so that the two are touching or connected
3. To be located beside something else, typically with a direct connection or border between them

Etymology: The verb "adjoin" arrived in English from Anglo-Norman "adjoindre", the Norman-French form of Latin "adiungere", which combined "ad" ("to, toward") with "iungere" ("to join"). That Latin verb is also the source of "join", which came through Old French "joindre" from the same root, so the two words are close relatives that took different routes into English. "Join" has the older, everyday history, while "adjoin" carries the extra prefix that narrows the idea from merely connecting things to placing them side by side and touching along a shared edge. Over time, the sense stayed close to its Latin core of bringing things together, but in English it became specific to spatial contact. A field can adjoin a river, and two rooms can adjoin through a door, but the word does not describe a mere link between abstract ideas in the way "join" can. The prefix "ad-" does the work of pointing the joining toward an adjacent place, which is why the word sounds more precise than its simpler cousin.

Synonyms: attach, join

Antonyms: detach, separate