collocation
/ˌkɒl.əˈkeɪ.ʃən/
collocation means the grouping or juxtaposition of things, especially words or sounds. It carries an Arena rating of 1343, earned across 3 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, collocation ranks #2,309 of 14,431 for Most Betrayed by Its Sound, #2,319 of 14,444 for Most Exacting Words, #2,580 of 14,456 for The Improbable, #7,100 of 14,440 for Most Satisfying to Say.
collocation is pronounced /ˌkɒl.əˈkeɪ.ʃən/.
Why “collocation” is a great word
The habitual, statistically significant pairing of words, forming a conventional unit where meaning arises from their particular alliance. Learned borrowing from Latin collocātiō, from collocātus, past participle of collocāre ("to place together"), from col- ("together") + locāre ("to place"); first attested in English in 1605, with the specific linguistic sense established in 1951. Unlike an idiom, whose meaning is opaque and figurative, or a concordance, which is merely an index of contexts, a collocation is the subtle, expected grammar of usage. It is the 'heavy rain' that falls more naturally than 'weighty rain,' the 'bitter cold' that chills more deeply than 'sour cold,' and the 'commitment' one 'makes' rather than 'produces'—the invisible threads of habit that weave language into a fabric, not a heap.
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Latin collocātiō (“a putting together”). By surface analysis, col- (“together”) + location. The technical sense in linguistics was established in 1951, although it may actually be earlier. First attested in 1605.
noun
- The grouping or juxtaposition of things, especially words or sounds.e.g.“Everything in fact depends in Chinese on the proper collocation of words in a sentence. Thus ngò tà ni means “I beat thee;” but ni tà ngò would mean “Thou beatest me.””
- Such a specific grouping.
- A sequence of words or terms that co-occur more often than would be expected by chance (i.e., the statistically significant placement of particular words in a language), often representing an established name for, or idiomatic way of conveying, a particular semantic concept.e.g.“Little and few are also incomplete negatives; note the frequent collocation with no: there is little or no danger.”
- A method of finding an approximate solution of an ordinary differential equation L[y]=0 by determining coefficients in an expansion y(x)=y_0(x)+∑ₗ₌₀^qαₗy_l(x) so as to make L[y] vanish at prescribed points; the expansion with the coefficients thus found is the sought approximation.
- A service allowing multiple customers to locate network, server, and storage gear and connect them to a variety of telecommunications and network service providers, at a minimum of cost and complexity.
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