transpontine (adj. Darwin-was-funny)

1. situated on the farther side of a bridge

2. British: situated on the south side of the Thames

Usually the prefix "trans-," meaning "across," allows for a reciprocal perspective. Whether you're in Europe or America, for example, transoceanic countries are countries across the ocean from where you are. But that's not the way it works with "transpontine" -- at least, it didn't originally. The "pont-" in "transpontine" is from the Latin "pons," meaning "bridge," and the bridge in this case was, at first, any bridge that crossed the River Thames in the city of London. "Across the bridge" meant on one side of the river only -- the south side. That's where the theaters that featured populist melodrama were located, and Victorian Londoners first used "transpontine" to distinguish them from their more respectable "cispontine" counterparts.

coalesce [v. koh-ka-kol-ah-ees-icky]

When something grows or fuses together it is coalescing. To coalesce is to unite distinct elements into a single whole. Near synonyms include blend, weld, consolidate, integrate, and merge.

This verb can also apply to people forming a group.

Coalesce entered the English language in the mid-16th century. It comes from the Latin coalescere (of the same meaning). This word combined co- (together) and alescere (to grow up) which was a variation on alere (to nourish).