contact (n.) Look up contact at Dictionary.com
1620s, from L. contactus "a touching," pp. of contingere "to touch, seize," from com- "together" + tangere "to touch" (see tangent). The verb is 1834, "put in contact;" meaning "get in touch with" is 1927, Amer.Eng. As a signal to the person about to spin an aircraft propeller that the ignition is switched on, the word was in use by 1913. Contact lens is first recorded 1888; short form contact is from 1961.