English → Latin
“touch” in Latin
tāctiōa touching (not found outside the set phrase tāctiō esse, see usage notes); the sense of touch; (countable) a sensing bytangōto touch, grasp; to reach, arrive at, come to a place; to attain tocontāgiōcontact, touch; intercourse (social); influenceattingōto come in contact with, touch; to assault; strike, attack; to touch, tasteattrectōto touch, handle; to touch in an unlawful manner; violate; to busy oneself withcontingōto touch on all sides, take hold of, come into contact with; to reach (by moving), attain to, come to, arrive at, meet w
Riddle & Arnold A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon, 1864
touch s.
tactio: tactus (act of touching): contagio (contact, in good or bad sense; hence also = contagion). ☞ Not contagium in classical prose.
touch v.
PROP., tangere: attingere: attrectare: contractare (to feel, handle): manus afferre alicui rei (to lay hands upon, to attack violently; e.g., alienis bonis): invadere aliquem or aliquid, irruere in aliquid (to attack): violare aliquid (to destroy). Not to touch anything (i. e., to abstain from), aliquid non tangere, or non attingere: sese abstinere re: to touch not a fraction of the booty, de praeda nec teruncium attingere.
Figuratively, To affect, hurt, Vid: To touch the honor or character of anybody, detrahere de fama alicujus: violare alicujus existimationem: impugnare alicujus dignitatem. TOUCH AT A PORT, *(ad) portum adire. ☞ Portum tangere (Verg., Aen.,: 4, 612) = “to arrive at, reach a port.” TOUCH UPON,
PROP., tangere: attingere: contingere. [Vid: BORDER.]
Figuratively, tangere: attingere: mentionem alicujus rei inchoare (to mention cursorily). To touch upon anything slightly, or with few words, leviter tangere: breviter or strictim attingere: breviter perstringere: paucis percurrere (in passing): leviter in transitu attingere: leviter transire et tantummodo perstringere; with very few words, or very slightly, perquam breviter perstringere atque attingere: primoribus labris gustare, et extremis, ut dicitur, digitis attingere: to touch only on the principal points, rerum summas attingere (opposed to res explicare, to go into detail; Vid: commentators on Nep., Pelop., 1, 1): to touch upon each point separately, singillatim unamquamque rem attingere.
Quick answer
- What is the Latin word for touch?
- The usual Latin words for “touch” are tāctiō, tangō, contāgiō; also attingō, attrectō, contingō. The right choice depends on the sense; see the distinctions below.
Entry from J. E. Riddle & T. K. Arnold, A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon (rev. C. Anthon, New York: Harper, 1864), digitised by Fergus J. P. Walsh, CC BY-SA 4.0; Latin markup adapted by latindictionary.co.