juxtaposition
verbEtymology Borrowed from French juxtaposition, from Latin iuxtā (“near”) (from Latin iungō (“to join”)) + French position (“position”) (from Latin pōnō (“to place”)).
1
To place in juxtaposition.
- Related terms
- parataxis
juxtaposition
nounCA, US, UK /ˌd͡ʒʌk.stə.pəˈzɪʃ.ən/ · AU /ˌd͡ʒɐk.stə.pəˈzɪʃ.ən/
Etymology Borrowed from French juxtaposition, from Latin iuxtā (“near”) (from Latin iungō (“to join”)) + French position (“position”) (from Latin pōnō (“to place”)).
1
The nearness of objects with little or no delimiter.
- It is the object of the mechanical atomistic philosophy to confound synthesis with synartesis, or rather with mere juxtaposition of corpuscles separated by invisible interspaces.1809, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Friend:
2
Grammar, Human sciences, Linguistics, Sciences An absence of linking elements in a group of words that are listed together.
- Example: mother father instead of mother and father
3
Mathematics, Sciences An absence of operators in an expression.
- Using juxtaposition for multiplication saves space when writing longer expressions. a#92;timesb collapses to ab.
- A fundamental operation on strings is string concatenation which we will denote by juxtaposition.2007, Lawrence Moss, Hans-Jörg Tiede, “Applications of Modal Logic in Linguistics”, in P. Blackburn et al., editors, Handbook of Modal Logic, Elsevier, page 1054:
4
The extra emphasis given to a comparison when the contrasted objects are close together.
- There was a poignant juxtaposition between the boys laughing in the street and the girl crying on the balcony above.
5
Art, Arts Two or more contrasting sounds, colours, styles etc. placed together for stylistic effect.
- The juxtaposition of the bright yellows on the dark background made the painting appear three dimensional.
- Her mother favored a multiyear project: obscenities carved in intricate and clever juxtapositions, descending every finger, curling in lettered whorls across the palm, fanning in offensive rays across the opisthenar, which is the name for the back of the hand, a word that Leilani knew because she had studied the structure of the human hand in detail, the better to understand her difference.2001, Dean R. Koontz, One Door Away from Heaven, Random House, →ISBN, page 497:
6
Rhetoric The close placement of two ideas to imply a link that may not exist.
- Example: In 1965 the government was elected; in 1965 the economy took a dive.
- Derived terms
- juxtapositional
- Related terms
- juxtapose, juxtaposed, juxtapositive
- Hypernyms
- position