conjoined

English

Daisy and Violet Hilton, conjoined twins

Etymology

From conjoin +‎ -ed.^[1]

Adjective

conjoined (not comparable)

1. Of persons (conjoined twins) or things: joined together physically.
   • 1580s, Ovid, Elegia VI, Book I, translated by Christopher Marlowe, in Christopher Marlowe: The Complete Poems and Translations, Stephen Orgel (ed.), Penguin, 1971, p. 110,

     And farewell cruel posts, rough threshold's block, / And doors conjoined with an hard iron lock!

   • 1888–1891, Herman Melville, “[Billy Budd, Foretopman.] Chapter XI.”, in Billy Budd and Other Stories, London: John Lehmann, published 1951, →OCLC, page 256:

     Now envy and antipathy, passions irreconcilable in reason, nevertheless in fact may spring conjoined like Chang and Eng in one birth.

   • 1982, Saul Bellow, The Dean's December, New York: Pocket Books, page 184:

     Blood vessels are fused to increase circulation and these conjoined or grafted veins and arteries make great painful lumps which have to be soaked daily.

   • 2009, Alex Metcalfe, chapter 10, in The Muslims of Medieval Italy, Edinburgh University Press, page 196:

     These 'signatures' (in Arabic ‘alāmāt; singular, ‘alāma) typically consisted of a phrase of up to half a dozen conjoined words written as a monogram in which the reed pen usually maintained contact with the parchment throughout.

2. Joined or bound together; united (in a relationship).
   • 1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, Much Adoe about Nothing. […], quarto edition, London: […] V[alentine] S[immes] for Andrew Wise, and William Aspley, published 1600, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i], signatures F3, recto – F3, verso:

     If either of you know any inward impediment why you ſhould not be conioyned, I charge you on your ſoules to vtter it.

   • 1935, T.S. Eliot, Murder in the Cathedral, New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co., Part II, p. 83:

     O my lord / The glory of whose new state is hidden from us, / Pray for us of your charity; now in the sight of God / Conjoined with all the saints and martyrs gone before you, / Remember us.

   • 1957 June 3, “E Pluribus Nigeria”, in Time:

     But as representatives of a loosely conjoined nation split in a hundred ways by personal, tribal, religious and economic rivalries and jealousies, no two of them went to the conference agreed on what independence should mean.

3. Combined.
   • 1823, Elia [pseudonym; Charles Lamb], “A Quaker’s Meeting”, in Elia. Essays which have Appeared under that Signature in The London Magazine, London: […] [Thomas Davison] for Taylor and Hessey, […], →OCLC, page 110:

     Their garb and stillness conjoined, present an uniformity, tranquil and herd-like—as in the pasture—"forty feeding like one."

   • 1871, Walt Whitman, Democratic Vistas‎, Washington, D.C., page 45:

     I have seen another woman who, from taste and necessity conjoined, has gone into practical affairs, carries on a mechanical business, partly works at it herself, […]

Usage notes

• Conjoint is often used, but conjoined is the preferred usage.

Derived terms

• conjoinedly
• conjoined twin
• nonconjoined
• unconjoined

 

Translations

joined together physically

Finnish: yhtenäinen (fi) (of or as if of one piece); yhteenliitetty (joined together); yhteenkasvanut (grown together); (of twins) siamilainen (fi) Irish: comhcheangailte Russian: сросшийся (ru) (srosšijsja), соединённый (ru) (sojedinjónnyj) Spanish: chachaguato, chacho (es) Swedish: siamesisk (sv), sammanvuxen

Verb

conjoined

1. simple past and past participle of conjoin

References

1. “conjoined, adj.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.