agglutination
Meanings
- The act of uniting by glue or other tenacious substance; the state of being thus united; adhesion of parts.
- Combination in which root words are united with little or no change of form or loss of meaning. See agglutinative.
- The clumping together of red blood cells or bacteria, usually in response to a particular antibody.
Pronunciation
Word forms
Etymology
Etymology tree French agglutinationbor. Proto-Indo-European *h₂éd Proto-Italic *ad Proto-Italic *ad- Latin ad- Proto-Indo-European *gleyH- Proto-Indo-European *glóh₁ytn̥ Proto-Italic *gloiten Latin glūten Latin glūtinō Latin agglūtinō Proto-Indo-European *-ōder. Proto-Indo-European *-Hōder.? Latin -ō Latin -iō New Latin agglutinatioder. English agglutination Multiple origins. The oldest usage, in relation to tissues adhering or healing in medical contexts, appears in the 16th century, from French agglutination. The linguistic sense derived from this usage during the early 19th century. The sense of gluing or cementing objects together in other contexts is from New Latin agglutinatio, from Latin agglūtinō (“glue; fasten to”) + -iō (a suffix used to form nouns). Compare Spanish aglutinación (“uniting; (linguistic) agglutination”), French agglutiner (“to paste together”, verb), and German Agglutination (“(linguistic) agglutination”) and Agglutinierung (“(biological) adhering, clumping”).