I keep meeting the word 'conjuncture' in various languages, and it  
seems to have various meanings. 
 
The Concise Oxford English Dictionary defines it as "a combination of  
events; a state of affairs". Webster (1967 ed.) is on a similar line,  
but adds "esp. pruducing a crisis". 
 
In German, the word 'Konjunktur' seems to have been associated with  
cycles (in economics writings, at least): 'Konjunkturtheorie' stands  
for 'theory of cycles'; how strict this association is, I cannot  
judge; but the Wikipedia on the web defines 'Konjunkturen' as  
'fluctuations in economic activity in market economies with a period  
of several years': http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konjunktur ).  
Similarly in Polish, judging from how the corresponding word was  
translated into English in the titles of some of Kalecki's early  
writings. 
 
In Italian a general meaning is circumstance, state of affairs, while  
the economic meaning is "set of factors determining, at a certain  
time, the general state and dynamics of the economy or of one of its  
sectors"; in association with an adjective, it describes a phase of  
the cycle (alta congiuntura, i.e. 'high conjunture', is the boom).  
When used on its own, 'congiuntura' means recession or crisis  
(Dizionario Italiano Sabatini Colletti). 
 
In the Italian speaking part of Switzerland (where I live), where  
there is some influence from German, the word is commonly used as  
indicating cycles. 
 
In French, I have seen the word used (by Bouniatian) to indicate the  
state of affairs regarding prices (so it seems to be more precise).  
The same author, in the German original of his book of cycles (1907  
--so he claims-- or 1908, so it is printed onthe cover; later  
translated into Russian, 1915, and French, 1922) titles a section  
"Der Mechanismus und die Triebfedern der allgemeinen Preisbewegungen.  
(Theorie der allgemeinen Konjunktur.)", so perhaps the association of  
the word with price fluctuations was his particular thing, or it did  
reflect the fact that most theories at that time were formulated in  
terms of price fluctuations. 
Modern French usage seems to use the wors as general state of the  
economy (http://www.industrie.gouv.fr/observat/conjonct/f2o_note.htm). 
 
There's a similar word in Danish (I came across an Institut for  
Konjunktur-Analyse on  the web, http://www.ifka.dk/), but I have no  
clue whether it only refers to the 'state of affairs' or more  
precisely to cycles. There is a similar work in Russian (the word  
popped up here http://www.ancentr.ru/portal/ with Google), but god  
knows what it means! The same for Swedish  
(http://lf.newmedia.se/finansrummet/mainFrame.asp?startfrom=market&subm=2). 
 
I am puzzled by these different usages of words that obviously share  
the same etymology. This raises a number of problems, that my small  
sample of dictionaries cannot help solving. 
 
How is it that the same root appears in so widely different  
languages? Where did the word actually originate? And why was THAT  
one taken up instead of something else? 
Is there a national or regional prevalent usage of these words? 
Did meaning and usage evolve in time? 
And does this evolution reflect some changes in the prevalent  
theoretical approach? 
 
Etymological dictionaries may perhaps help, but I suspect there are  
some interesting theoretical issues behind this. 
 
Thanks in advance for any feedback. 
 
Daniele Besomi