Appropinquity

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The condition of being near or close to something in location or time
2. A state of physical or temporal proximity where two things happen or exist close together
3. The quality of being situated nearby or occurring within a short interval

Etymology: Appropinquity is built from two parts. The first is the Latin prefix "ad-", meaning "to" or "toward," which here carries the sense of approach. The second is "propinquity," an English noun for nearness, which itself derives from the Latin "propinquus," meaning "near" or "close at hand." So the word literally means something like "a drawing near" or "an approach toward closeness." Its root, "propinquus," is built from "prope," meaning "near," and the suffix that gives the sense of a state or quality. Adding "ad-" intensifies the idea of coming closer, so the noun describes the condition of being close, or of something happening within a short span of time. Because the word is a straightforward combination of an existing English noun and a prefix, its history is simple: it is a learned formation drawn from Latin parts rather than a word that changed sense dramatically over time.

Synonyms: proximity, nearness, closeness

Antonyms: distance, remoteness, faraway, dissociation, separation