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English
Etymology
From Latincontactus, from contingō(“I touch on all sides”), from tangō(“I touch”). Used in English since the 17th century.
The act of touching physically; being in close association.
1935, George Goodchild, chapter 1, in Death on the Centre Court:
She mixed furniture with the same fatal profligacy as she mixed drinks, and this outrageous contact between things which were intended by Nature to be kept poles apart gave her an inexpressible thrill.
In the old days, […] he gave no evidences of genius whatsoever. He never read me any of his manuscripts, […], and therefore my lack of detection of his promise may in some degree be pardoned. But he had then none of the oddities and mannerisms which I hold to be inseparable from genius, and which struck my attention in after days when I came in contact with the Celebrity.
The situation of being within sight of something; visual contact.
1983, United States. Congress. House. Committee on Government Operations. Government Activities and Transportation Subcommittee, Hazardous Obstructions at San Francisco Airport, page 126:
If the pilot […] cannot establish visual contact with the ground, he must immediately execute a missed-approach procedure […]
A nodule designed to connect a device with something else.
Touch the contact to ground and read the number again.
Someone who can be contacted, or with whom one is in communication.
(by extension) Means of communication with a person, especially in the form of a telephone number.
Who is the company's contact for sales queries?
The salesperson had a whole binder full of contacts for potential clients.
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
The use of contact as a verb is occasionally discountenanced. Nonetheless, its usefulness and popularity have – at least to some extent – worn down resistance.