apposition

Meaning

Noun

• my eldest sister, Hannah, is 35
• A construction in which one noun or noun phrase is placed with another as an explanatory equivalent, both of them having the same syntactic function in the sentence.
• The relationship between such nouns or noun phrases.
• The quality of being side-by-side, apposed instead of being opposed, not being front-to-front but next to each other.
• A placing of two things side by side, or the fitting together of two things.
• The growth of successive layers of a cell wall.
• Appositio, the addition of an element not syntactically required.
• A public disputation by scholars.
• A (now purely ceremonial) speech day at St Paul's School, London.

Origin

• From Middle English apposicioun, from Middle French apposition, from Latin appositiō, past participle of appōnere.