adjungere

Adjungere is a verb of Latin origin that appears in historical and formal registers of Spanish, now largely considered archaic or literary. Its core meaning is to join to or attach to something, to add by affixing or appending, and it can also carry a sense of incorporating something as a part of a whole, such as a document, collection, or argument. In legal, ecclesiastical, and scholarly texts, adjungere can denote the act of placing additional material or evidence alongside existing records.

Etymology and related forms arise from the Latin adiungere, meaning “to join to,” composed of ad- “to” and iungere “to join.” The verb entered Spanish through medieval Latin and, in some periods, appears in legal or formal prose. In contemporary usage, adjungere is rarely used in everyday speech and is more likely to be encountered in historical documents, philological discussions, or stylistic, archaising contexts. Related verbs in modern Spanish include adjuntar (to attach a file or document), añadir or agregar (to add), unir (to join), and anexar (to annex). Depending on the context, adjungere can be substituted by these terms without a loss of meaning, though adjungere often carries a nuance of formal attachment or incorporation within an official record.

Examples in historical texts might read as “se adjungió una prueba al expediente,” meaning that a new piece of evidence was attached to the file. In modern practice, one would more likely say “adjuntó una prueba al expediente” or “anexó una prueba al expediente.”

See also: adjoin, adiungere, adjuntar, añadir, anexar.