An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics
English-French-Persian

1) Dependent for existence, occurrence, character, etc., on something not yet certain; conditional.
2) Liable to happen or not; uncertain; possible.
3) Logic: Describing a → proposition that is → true in some possible circumstances and → false in others. For example, "it snowed in Paris on 15 December 2000" is contingent: it is true, but it might have been false. On a → truth table a contingent proposition is one that is true for some possible → truth values of its constituent parts and false for others. See also → non-contingent.

M.E., from M.Fr. contingent and directly from L. contingentem (nominative contingens) "happening, touching," pr.p. of contingere "to touch," → contact.

Âmarsân, agent noun from *âmarsidan "to touch," related to parmâsidan "to touch, feel," → contact, Mid.Pers. marz "contact, touching," marzitan "to touch," Mod.Pers. mâlidan "to rub," Av. marəz- "to rub, wipe," marəza- "border, district," Mod.Pers. marz "border;" ultimately from Proto-Ir. *Hmars- "to touch."

Describing a → proposition that is either → true in every possible circumstance or → false in every possible circumstance. A proposition that is not → contingent.

→ non-; → contingent.