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

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From Latin nexus (“connection, nexus; act of binding, tying or fastening together; something which binds, binding, bond, fastening, joint; legal obligation”), from nectō (“to attach, bind, connect, fasten, tie; to interweave; to relate; to unite; to bind by obligation, make liable, oblige; to compose, contrive, devise, produce”, supine stem nex-) + -tus (suffix forming verbal nouns).[1]

nexus (countable and uncountable, plural nexuses or nexusses or (rare) **nexus or (hypercorrect) nexi or (misconstruction) nexii)

  1. A form or state of connection.
    Synonyms: bond, junction, link, tie; see also Thesaurus:junction, Thesaurus:link
    1. (Canada, US, finance, law) The relationship between a vendor and a jurisdiction for the purpose of taxation, established for example by the vendor operating a physical store in that jurisdiction.
  2. A connected group; a network, a web.
    • 2023 May 14, Panarat Thepgumpanat, Panu Wongcha-um, “Thailand's opposition opens up big election lead as army parties slide”, in Reuters‎[1]:
      Sunday's election pits Move Forward and the billionaire Shinawatra family's Pheu Thai against ruling parties backed by a nexus of old money, conservatives and generals with influence over key institutions involved in two decades of upheaval in Southeast Asia's second-biggest economy.
  3. A centre or focus of something.
    Synonyms: hub, junction
    • 2025 December 11, Charlie Campbell, Andrew R. Chow and Billy Perrigo, “The Architects of AI Are TIME’s 2025 Person of the Year”, in Time‎[2]:
      More than just a corporate juggernaut, Nvidia also has become an instrument of statecraft, operating at the nexus of advanced technology, diplomacy, and geopolitics.
  4. (grammar) In the work of the Danish linguist Otto Jespersen (1860–1943): a group of words expressing two concepts in one unit (such as a clause or sentence).
  5. (Ancient Rome, law, historical) A person who had contracted a nexum or obligation of such a kind that, if they failed to pay, their creditor could compel them to work as a servant until the debt was paid; an indentured servant.

form or state of connection

relationship between a vendor and jurisdiction for the purpose of taxation

connected group — see also network

centre or focus of something

group of words expressing two concepts in one unit

person who had contracted a nexum or obligation of such a kind that, if they failed to pay, their creditor could compel them to work as a servant until the debt was paid

  1. ^ “nexus, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, June 2019; “nexus, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Perfect passive participle of nectō (“bind”).

nexus (feminine nexa, neuter nexum); first/second-declension participle

  1. bound, tied, fastened, connected, interwoven, having been bound.
  2. bound by obligation, obliged, made liable, pledged, having been obliged.
  3. (nominalized, masculine, Ancient Rome, law) debtors who, having failed to cover the security they owed to their creditor, were enslaved to them as bondsmen (the practice was abolished in 326 BC, see quotes)
    Coordinate term: nexum
    • 27 BCE – 25 BCE, Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita II.27:
      fusis Auruncis, uictor tot intra paucos dies bellis Romanus promissa consulis fidemque senatus exspectabat, cum Appius et insita superbia animo et ut collegae uanam faceret fidem, quam asperrime poterat ius de creditis pecuniis dicere. Deinceps et qui ante nexi fuerant creditoribus tradebantur et nectebantur alii.
      (please add an English translation of this quotation)
    • 27 BCE – 25 BCE, Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita VIII.28:
      Eo anno plebi Romanae uelut aliud initium libertatis factum est quod necti desierunt; mutatum autem ius ob unius feneratoris simul libidinem, simul crudelitatem insignem. L. Papirius is fuit, cui cum se C. Publilius ob aes alienum paternum nexum dedisset […] iussique consules ferre ad populum […] pecuniae creditae bona debitoris, non corpus obnoxium esset. Ita nexi soluti, cautumque in posterum ne necterentur.
      (please add an English translation of this quotation)

First/second-declension adjective.

Proto-Indo-European *-tus

Latin nexus

From nectō + -tus (forming action nouns).

nexus m (genitive **nexūs); fourth declension

  1. (abstract) the act of binding, tying or fastening together
    Synonym: nexiō
  2. (concrete) something which binds; bond, joint, binding, fastening; nexus
    Synonym: iunctūra
  3. connection
    Synonym: nexilitās
  4. a personal obligation of a debtor
  5. a legal obligation
  6. (New Latin, Internet) a hyperlink, link

Fourth-declension noun.