contingo

• IPA^(key): /konˈtin.ɡo/
• Rhymes: -inɡo
• Hyphenation: con‧tìn‧go

contingo

1. first-person singular present indicative of contingere

From con- (“together”) + tangō (“touch”).

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [kɔnˈtɪŋ.ɡoː]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [konˈtiŋ.ɡo]

contingō (present infinitive contingere, perfect active contigī, supine contāctum); third conjugation

1. to touch on all sides, take hold of, come into contact with

   Synonyms: temptō, tangō

   • 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Vergilius, Aeneis 2.238–239:

     “[...] Puerī circum innūptaeque puellae
     sacra canunt, fūnemque manū contingere gaudent.”

     “Around [the wooden horse], boys and unwedded girls chant hymns, and delight to touch a rope by hand.”
     (The Trojans pull the wooden horse using heavy ropes while their children celebrate it as a sacred effigy.)

2. to reach (by moving), attain to, come to, arrive at, meet with
3. to touch, extend to, border upon, reach; to be near, neighbouring or contiguous to

   Synonyms: subsum, immineō, astō, īnstō

   Antonyms: dissideō, distō

4. to strike

   Synonyms: percutiō, accidō, verberō, cellō, discutiō, icō, percellō, afflīgō

5. to touch, affect, seize upon, move
6. (usually in passive) to touch with pollution, pollute, stain, defile, contaminate

   Synonyms: polluō, inquinō, maculō, scelerō

   Antonyms: tergeō, abstergeō, pūrgō, luō, putō, effingō

7. (with dative) to fall to one’s lot, to fall to the lot of, to befall, to obtain
   • 106 BCE – 43 BCE, Cicero, Cato Maior De Senectute 3.8:

     Laelius: Est, ut dīcis, Catō; sed fortasse dīxerit quispiam tibi propter opēs et cōpiās et dignitātem tuam tolerābiliōrem senectūtem vidērī, id autem nōn posse multīs contingere.

     Laelius: It is just as you say, Cato; but perhaps someone might suggest to you that old age seems more bearable to you only because of your wealth, resources, and social standing — and that [such a fortunate lot] cannot fall to many [others].

8. to happen, turn out, come to pass

   Synonyms: interveniō, ēveniō, obveniō, expetō, obtingō, incurrō, accēdō, intercidō, incidō, accidō, fīō

   • 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Vergilius, Aeneis 1.94–96:

     [...] “Ō terque quaterque beātī,
     quīs ante ōra patrum Troiae sub moenibus altīs
     contigit oppetere! [...].”

     “Oh [those] three and four times blessed, to whom – before [your] fathers’ faces, beneath the high walls of Troy – it happened [for you] to meet [death]!”
     (Aeneas speaks in apostrophe to absent warriors; in other words, those heroes who died on the battlefield of Troy, as witnessed by their fathers from atop the city walls. Note: Here “quis” is “quibus,” a plural dative of interest.)

• Inherited:
  • Old Catalan: contènyer
    • ⇒ Catalan: acontènyer
  • ⇒ Vulgar Latin: *contigīre (see there for further descendants)
• Borrowed:
  • → Catalan: contingir
  • → English: contact
  • → Italian: contingere

• “contingo”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “contingo”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “contingo”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894), Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • my wishes are being fulfilled: optata mihi contingunt
    
  • to stand in very intimate relations to some one: summa necessitudine aliquem contingere
    
• contingo in Ramminger, Johann (16 July 2016 (last accessed)), Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700‎^[2], pre-publication website, 2005-2016
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “contingent”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.