conjugate

What it means

1. transitivegrammarTo inflect (a verb) for each person, in order, for one or more tenses; to list or recite its principal parts.

   In English, the verb 'to be' is conjugated as follows: 'I am', 'you are', 'he/she/it is', 'we are', 'you are', 'they are'.

2. mathematicsTo multiply on the left by one element and on the right by its inverse.
3. rareTo join together, to unite; to juxtapose.

   The effects of hunger were often conjugated with epidemic disease.

   2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin, published 2003, page 55

In a sentence

In English, the verb 'to be' is conjugated as follows: 'I am', 'you are', 'he/she/it is', 'we are', 'you are', 'they are'.

Where it comes from

1. Latinconiugō“to yoke together, combine; (New Latin) to conjugate, decline, inflect”
2. New Latinconiugātus
3. Middle Englishconjugat(e)“combined, united”
4. Englishconjugate

The adjective (as “combined, united”) and noun are first attested in 1471, in Middle English, the verb in 1530; partly from Middle English conjugat(e) (“combined, united”), partly directly borrowed from New Latin coniugātus, the perfect passive participle of Latin coniugō (“to yoke together, combine; (New Latin) to conjugate, decline, inflect”) (see -ate (etymology 1, 2 and 3)), from con- (“with”) + iugō (“to join”). In Classical Latin, the word for conjugate (grammar) was dēclīnō, coniugō is a later back-formation from post-classical coniugātiō (“conjugation, declension”).