propinquity

Definition from Wiktionary, a free dictionary

Contents 1 English 1.1 Etymology 1.2 Pronunciation 1.3 Noun

[edit] English

[edit] Etymology

From Old French propinquité or Latin propinquitas, from propinquus ‘neighbouring’ (from prope ‘near’).

[edit] Pronunciation

• IPA: /prəˈpɪŋkwɪti/

[edit] Noun

propinquity (plural propinquities)

1. (technical) nearness or proximity

   • 1904: Some experimental spirits could not resist the diversion of throwing Varick and his former wife together, and there were those who thought he found a zest in the propinquity. — Edith Wharton, "The Other Two"
   • 1964: Community without propinquity — Melvin M. Webber et al, "The Urban Place and the Non-Place Urban Realm" in Explorations into Urban Structure
   • 1973: Surely, too, it would be a waste of an agent, for after several hours of propinquity I could scarcely fail to recognise him in the future. — Kyril Bonfiglioli, Don't Point That Thing at Me (Penguin 2001, p. 70)
   • 1985: There was also the question of Julius’s glandular responses to the almost daily propinquity of his Empress, so naked under her lawn. — Anthony Burgess, "The Kingdom of the Wicked"
   • 1993: Geographical propinquity gives rise to conflicting territorial claims from Bosnia to Mindanao. — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations? (Foreign Affairs, Summer 1993), 29

2. (technical) affiliation or similarity

   • 1979: [A] person's mere propinquity to others independently suspected of criminal activity does not, without more, give rise to probable cause to search that person. Ybarra v. Illinois, 444 U.S. 85, 86 (1979).
   • 1997: Decent people out there. Russ wants to believe they are still assembled in some recognizable manner, the kindred unit at the radio, old lines and ties and propinquities. — Don DeLillo, "Underworld"