propinquity

noun

Etymology: From propinqu(ent) + -ity, from Middle English propinquite, from Middle French propinquité or Latin propinquitās, from propinquus (“neighbouring”) (from prop(e) (“near”) + (h)inc (“hence”) + -uus).

1. Nearness or proximity

   “Some experimental spirits could not resist the diversion of throwing Varick and his former wife together, and there were those who thought he found a zest in the propinquity.”

   “Yet, never before in human history has it been so easy to communicate across long distances. Never before have men been able to maintain intimate and continuing contact with others across thousands of miles; never has intimacy been so independent of spatial propinquity.”

2. Affiliation or similarity.

   “Heere I diſclaime all my Paternall care, / Propinquity and property of blood, / And as a ſtranger to my heart and me, / Hold thee from this for euer.”

   “What is impossible is not the propinquity of the things listed, but the very site on which their propinquity would be possible.”