configuration
/kənˌfɪɡjəˈreɪʃən/noun
Arrangement of parts forming a particular shape or system
From Latin con- (with) + Latin figura (shape).
Lineage
con-
figura
The story
Picture a craftsman arranging separate pieces until they become one recognizable design: that is the visual idea packed into configuration. Latin supplied the two-part toolkit—con-, “together,” and figura, “shape” or “form”—which joined in configurare, “to fashion after a pattern.” By the 1550s, English configuration could describe the outward shape produced by arranging parts, a meaning that later fit machines, political systems, software settings, and even constellations. The word’s close cousin figure still points to a shape, while configure preserves the hands-on verb: to arrange something so it works or looks a certain way. “Gestalt” reaches a similar destination by a different road—German for “form” became the name of a psychological whole that seems greater than its pieces. So configuration is, at heart, a meeting of parts: con- brings them together, and figura gives the gathering a shape.
Modern usage
A person’s political alignment or ideological position
- Heard in
- political slang
- See
- Urban Dictionary entry using “configuration” for left-wing or right-wing political identity
Words from the same roots
figura · Latin, ‘shape, form, figure’
Derivedfigure, figurative, figuration, transfigure, configure
Sources
- Etymonlineconfiguration, gestalt, constellation, shape, form
- Urban Dictionaryconfiguration
- Wiktionaryconfiguration