Connectors

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Elements designed to join distinct components for functional integration
2. Instruments that serve to establish a connection among various entities or systems
3. Objects that join two or more components to create a unified whole ; terms used in language to link words, phrases, or clauses together

Etymology: Electrical "connectors" are a nineteenth-century idea, but the word itself is much older. It is formed from the verb "connect," which came into English in the late 1500s, borrowed from the Latin "connectere," meaning "to bind together," from "com-" ("together") and "nectere" ("to tie" or "bind"). The noun "connector" followed in the 1600s, and at first it referred to a person or thing that links others, and to a lexical or grammatical link in the sense of a word that joins clauses. The sense in the given meaning, a physical part that joins equipment, grew out of the telegraph and early electrical industries of the 1800s, when engineers needed standard fittings to join wires, cables and apparatus. Those fittings are the origin of the modern use, which now covers everything from computer plugs to pipe fittings.

Synonyms: links, joiners, couplers

Antonyms: disconnectors, separators