connexion - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From Middle English connexioun, from Latin connexiō (“a conclusion, binding together”), from connectō.

connexion (countable and uncountable, plural connexions)

  1. (chiefly British) Dated spelling of connection.
    • 1803 February, John Marshall, quotee, “Marbury v. Madiſon”, in U.S. Reports‎[1], volume 5, Washington, D.C.: William Cranch, archived from the original on 30 April 2024, pages 141–142:
      There are undoubtedly facts, which, may come to their knowledge by means of their connexion with the ſecretary of ſtate, reſpecting which they cannot anſwer.
    • 1845 July and August, John O’Sullivan, “Annexation”, in United States Magazine and Democratic Review‎[2], volume 17, number 1, archived from the original on 4 July 2024, page 1:
      It is now time for the opposition to the Annexation of Texas to cease, all further agitation of the waters of bitterness and strife, at least in connexion with this question,–even though it may perhaps be required of us as a necessary condition of the freedom of our institutions, that we must live on for ever in a state of unpausing struggle and excitement upon some subject of party division or other.
    • 1851, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick:
      And about this harpooneer, whom I have not yet seen, you persist in telling me the most mystifying and exasperating stories, tending to beget in me an uncomfortable feeling towards the man whom you design for my bedfellow–a sort of connexion, landlord, which is an intimate and confidential one in the highest degree.
    • 1928 February, H[oward] P[hillips] Lovecraft, “The Call of Cthulhu”, in Farnsworth Wright, editor, Weird Tales: A Magazine of the Bizarre and Unusual, volume 11, number 2, Indianapolis, Ind.: Popular Fiction Pub. Co., →OCLC, pages 159–178 and 287:
      Persuading the widow that my connexion with her husband's 'technical matters' was sufficient to entitle me to his manuscript, I bore the document away and […]
    • 1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt, [Paris]: Olympia Press, →OCLC:
      It resembled them in the sense that it was not ended, when it was past, but continued to unfold, in Watt's head, from beginning to end, over and over again, the complex connexions of its lights and shadows, the passing from silence to sound and from sound to silence, the stillness before the movement and the stillness after, the quickenings and retardings, the approaches and the separations, all the shifting detail of its march and ordinance, according to the irrevocable caprice of its taking place.
    • 1978, Moses I. Finley, “The fifth-century Athenian empire: A balance sheet”, in Peter D. A. Garnsey, C. R. Whittaker, editors, Imperialism in the Ancient World: The Cambridge University Research Seminar in Ancient History‎[3], Cambridge University Press (reprinted 2006), →ISBN, page 125:
      In this connexion, it is worth remembering that we are never told how the tribute was collected within the tributary state.
    • 1984 November 20, “Rugby Union: The Jaguars Make A Move To End Their Isolation Argentina turns to FIRA and the French connexion is set to benefit”, in The Times, page 21:
    • [2005** April 11, Philip Howard, “Modern Manners”, in The Times‎[4], London: News UK, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 17 April 2026:
      “      Connexion” is the etymological (ie, “correct”) spelling. That is to say, our word is derived from an actual Latin noun, cf. deflexion, inflexion, and reflexion. […] And it might make life easier to abolish the letter “x”. But why should we cut off the fascinating roots of our words? I should carry on preferring “connexion**”.]
  2. (religion)
    1. (Methodism) A Methodist denomination as a whole, as opposed to its constituent churches, circuits, districts and conferences (US spelling: connection).
    2. (historical) The inter-relationship of prayer groups or religious societies under the oversight of an itinerant preacher who is assisted by the local preachers attached to each society.

The spelling connexion fell out of common use in the United States after the 18th century. In the United Kingdom, it remained standard into the early twentieth century but declined thereafter, with connection becoming the dominant form. Despite this decline, connexion continues to be recognized as a legitimate British variant, notably preserved in the terminology of the British Methodist Church and certain other organizations. Major references, including the Oxford Dictionary, list it as an accepted British spelling. In Canada, the form occasionally appears due to its identity with the French spelling, reflecting the country’s bilingual context.

From Latin cōnexiōnem. By surface analysis, connecter +‎ -xion.

connexion f (plural connexions)

  1. connection
  2. login
    Synonym: identifiant

connexion oblique singular, f (oblique plural connexions, nominative singular **connexion, nominative plural connexions)

  1. connection (state of being connected)