An appendage; something attached to something else in a subordinate capacity.
Lie here ye weedes that I diſdaine to weare, This compleat armor, and this curtle-axe / Are adiuncts more beſeeming Tamburlaine.c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act I, scene ii:
Learning is but an adiunct to our ſelfe, And where we are, our Learning likewiſe is.c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Loues Labour’s Lost”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii], page 135:
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A boot-stand, on which all the boots and shoes should be arranged in regular order, with boot-jacks and boot-hooks, is a necessary adjunct to the gentleman's dressing-room.1876, Eliza Bisbee Duffey, Our Behaviour: A Manual of Etiquette and Dress of the Best American Society, Philadelphia:
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A person associated with another, usually in a subordinate position; a colleague.
[H]e made him the aſſociate of his Heir apparant, together vvith the nevv Lord Cottington (as an adjunct of ſingular experience and truſt) in forraine travailes, and in a buſineſſe of Love, and of no equall hazzard […]c. 1635 (date written), Henry Wotton, “Of Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex; and George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham: Some Observations by Way of Parallel in the Time of Their Estates of Favour”, in Reliquiæ Wottonianæ. Or, A Collection of Lives, Letters, Poems; […], London: […] Thomas Maxey, for R[ichard] Marriot, G[abriel] Bedel, and T[imothy] Garthwait, published 1651, →OCLC, page 5:
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EducationAbbreviation, Ellipsis Ellipsis of adjunct professor.
I've been given the chance to do this through my own department and through university programmes that don't have tenure-track lines and are therefore more likely to seek assistance from adjuncts.2014 March 14, Jacqueline Taylor, “Life without tenure: how I've found fulfilment in US academia”, in The Guardian:
Dated A quality or property of the body or mind, whether natural or acquired, such as colour in the body or judgement in the mind.
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Entertainment, Lifestyle, Music A key or scale closely related to another as principal; a relative or attendant key.
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Grammar, Human sciences, Linguistics, Sciences A phrase within a clause or sentence that is grammatically dispensable but not semantically so, modifying the meaning.
When a female enters the profession, she is generally not referred to as doctor but as a lady doctor or woman doctor. The use of "feminizing" adjuncts designates a deviation from the norm, doctor, and does not carry the weight of the term unmodified.1981 April 4, Signe A. Dayhoff, “Sexist Language: You Become Your Label”, in Gay Community News, page 9:
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Biology, Epigraphy, Geography, History, Human sciences, Literature, Media, Natural sciences, Palaeography, Paleogeography, Paleography, Paleontology, Publishing, Sciences A graphic element that modifies another, such as (in Linear B script) a small syllabogram that is attached to a logogram as an abbreviation of an adjective that modifies that logogram (rather than as a phonetic complement that disambiguates the logogram).
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Human sciences, Linguistics, Sciences, Syntax A constituent which is both the daughter and the sister of an X-bar.
We can see from (34) that Determiners are sisters of N-bar and daughters of N-double-bar; Adjuncts are both sisters and daughters of N-bar; and Complements are sisters of N and daughters of N-bar. This means that Adjuncts resemble Complements in that both are daughters of N-bar; but they differ from Complements in that Adjuncts are sisters of N-bar, whereas Complements are sisters of N. Likewise, it means that Adjuncts resemble Determiners in that both are sisters of N-bar, but they differ from Determiners in that Adjuncts are daughters of N-bar, whereas Determiners are daughters of N-double-bar.1988, Andrew Radford, Transformational grammar: a first course, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, page 177:
Category theory, Computing, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Sciences One of a pair of morphisms which relate to each other through a pair of adjoint functors.
Etymology From Latin adiunctus, perfect passive participle of adiungō (“join to”), from ad + iungō (“join”). Doublet of adjoint.
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Connected in a subordinate function.
Though that my death were adiunct to my Act, By heauen I would doe it.c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iii], page 11:
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Added to a faculty or staff in a secondary position.
I also nannied through the first part of graduate school. I had friends who bartended or worked at a wine store and also adjuncted. A lot of people would package these jobs together.2015 November 24, Noah Davis, quoting Monica Brannon, “How Do You Make a Living, Visiting Professor?”, in Pacific Standard, Santa Barbara, C.A.: The Miller-McCune Center […], →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 18 Aug 2022:
A sudden fantasy emerges of Adam adjuncting at Hannah's college, a sweet Mr. Mom to Paul-Louis' (Riz Ahmed) baby while Hannah becomes a professor slash internet celeb -- but there I go writing fanfiction.2017 April 15, Emily Jordan, “Let me be misunderstood: The final episode of HBO's "Girls" and how we really feel about Hannah Horvath”, in Salon.com, archived from the original on 23 Aug 2023:
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In Want, out this month, Strong homes in on those themes. In this novel, her second, narrator Elizabeth is raising two small children with her husband, a carpenter, in New York City, while going through a bankruptcy and teaching low-income students at a charter school and adjuncting at a prestigious university.2020 July 7, Lydia Kiesling, “'To fail but still mostly be safe': Lynn Steger Strong wrestles with precarity and privilege”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 28 Sep 2022:
I wish I had a cut and dry answer to this question. When I adjunct at the University of Baltimore, I get asked a similar question by my students every semester.2022 July 26, Donte Kirby, quoting Tronster Hartley, “Want to break into tech? Software devs say to learn these coding languages”, in Technical.ly, archived from the original on 09 Dec 2022: