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Thursday November 19, 2009

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propinquity [pruh-PING-kwih-tee]

noun

1. Nearness in place; proximity.
2. Nearness in time.
3. Nearness of blood or relation; kinship.

• At the same time, in a city that thrives on propinquity and prides itself on toughness, few commuters appear to be avoiding the subways and the buses that carry them on a total of 7.5 million rides a day.
  "Anne Barnard, “Standing Shoulder to Shoulder With Fear of the Flun", New York Times, May 3, 2009
• If much has been written about the influence of historian Doris Goodwin Kearn's book Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln (2005) on Obama's "post-ideological" thinking with respect to his cabinet selections, then it appears as if propinquity plays a larger role in his thought process when it comes to picking poets. Alexander is said to be a former neighbor and friend of both Barack and Michelle Obama.
  "R.D. Pohl, “Poet Elizabeth Alexander to read at inaugural", Buffalo News, Dec 22, 2008
• He had not been a candidate for justice of the peace for nothing; he had absorbed something of the methods and spirit of the law through sheer propinquity to the office.
  Mary Noailles Murfree (1850 - 1922) An American fiction writer of novels and short stories. His "Day In Court" (1895)

Origin of the Word

Propinquity, approximatley 1400s, derives from Old French propinquite, from Latin propinquitas "nearness, vicinity," from propinquus "near, neighboring," from prope "near."