Connecting two or more things together, either physically or by association; also used in grammar to describe verbs that connect a subject to its description.
From Old Norse 'hlenkr' meaning 'chain,' the word originally meant connecting things in a chain. By the 14th century, it was used for any kind of connection, physical or abstract.
In linguistics, 'linking verbs' like 'is,' 'seems,' and 'feels' are called that because they link the subject to its complement, and this concept exists across almost all languages—which suggests humans naturally think about identity through the concept of linking one thing to its essential qualities.
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