union

Definitions

From Latin unio, 'a oneness,' from unus (one). A union is the result of making things one: a marriage unites two people, a trade union unites workers into one bargaining body, the European Union binds many countries into one bloc. The thread is always 'many becoming one.'

Why It Means This

Union is a good example of one root sense fanning out across very different domains. The base meaning is bare: a joining into one. Marriage is a 'union of two people.' Then groups of workers who join together to bargain as one became 'a union' (a labor union). Then states or nations bound into one body became 'a union' (the Union in the US Civil War, the European Union, the Soviet Union). Each sense is the same act of becoming one, scaled up from couples to workers to whole countries.

Common Collocations

• 1.labor union劳工工会
• 2.trade union行业工会
• 3.credit union信用合作社
• 4.in union with与……联合

Example Sentences

• 1.

  Their marriage was a union of two very different cultures.

• 2.

  She joined the union to fight for better conditions.

• 3.

  The European Union includes twenty-seven member states.

• 4.

  The two firms moved toward a full union of their operations.