Contactless

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Defined by processes or technologies that facilitate interaction without any physical touch between parties involved
2. Pertaining to transactions and communications carried out without any physical contact to enhance convenience
3. Describes technology or methods that function without requiring direct physical interaction

Etymology: "Contactless" is a plain compound: "contact" with the suffix "-less", meaning "without". The suffix descends from an Old English word, "-lēas", which meant "free from" or "lacking" and gave English words such as "careless" and "endless". Its root is ancient and is shared with the idea of loosening or releasing, so a "-less" word is literally something that has been loosed from a quality. The "contact" half comes from Latin "contactus", a touching together, from "contingere", to touch on every side. Attaching "-less" to it produced a word meaning simply "without touching", which is exactly what the modern sense describes. The adjective's current use, for payment cards and devices read by holding them near a terminal, is a recent application of this older building block rather than a change in the word's underlying sense.

Synonyms: touchless, remote, wireless

Antonyms: tactile, manual