Capitol Police: 'No Nexus to Terrorism'

From the Latin word that means 'to bind'

Nexus (“connection, link”) was among our top lookups on March 29th, after stories about an incident in Washington DC featured a widely reported quote that employed the word with an unusual subsequent preposition.

The incident appears to be criminal in nature with no nexus to terrorism, Malecki added.
—abcnews.com, 29 Mar. 2017

Shots were fired during the arrest attempt, but the incident appeared to be criminal in nature with "no nexus to terrorism," said Capitol Police spokeswoman Eva Malecki.
—Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Associated Press,  

Nexus comes to English from the Latin word nectere (“to bind”), and has been in use in English since the early 17th century. For most of the past four centuries the word has carried the primary meaning of “connection” or “connected group”; specialized senses in grammar and biology did not occur until the 20th century.

And the holie Ghost who prooceedeth eternallie from God the father and God the sonne, is called by diuines, their nexus their knotte of Freindship.
—Matthew Kellison, A Treatise of the Hierarchie and Diuers Orders of the Church, 1629

The combination of nexus with the preposition to by the police spokeswoman quoted in the story is a rare one. Nexus most often is used in conjunction with of or between.

Trend Watch tracks and reports on the words that people are looking up. You can see all the Trend Watch articles here.


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