tangible

Tangible means literally ‘touchable’. It comes via French tangible from late Latin tangibilis, a derivative of Latin tangere ‘touch’. other English words from this source include tangent (16^th c.), etymologically a line ‘touching’ a circle. Its past participle tactus has contributed contact, intact, and tact, while the base from which it was formed, *tag-, has also produced contagion, contaminate, entire, and integrity.