convent

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English covent, also cuvent,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Anglo-Norman covent^[5][2][6][7] and directly borrowed from Latin conventus (“assembly, meeting”).^[5][4] In Old French the word was covent or convent, now couvent;^[2][6][8][9] the Anglo-Norman word is recorded from the first half of the 12th century, meaning a group or assembly as well as a religious community.^[10][5] The Latin noun, used in Medieval Latin for a community of monks or nuns and for a religious house,^[11][2][5] is the past participle of conveniō (“to come together, assemble”),^[2][12][11] from com- (“with, together”) and veniō (“to come”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷā- (“to go, come”).^[2] The spelling with -n- was restored after the Latin in the early 15th century, according to Etymonline and Barnhart,^[2][3] but the Oxford Dictionary of English dates the modern form to the 16th century.^[13] The older covent survives in the London place name Covent Garden.^{[13][14][7][15]} The OED compares Spanish convento, Portuguese convento and Italian convento, all in a range of senses from assembly to religious house.^[5] It is related to convene, convenient, coven and covenant.^[14][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

An institution of men or women living together under religious vows, and the place where they live: about 1225, in the Ancrene Riwle; the community itself is recorded about 1230.^[5] Etymonline dates the word to about 1200, as covent and cuvent,^[2] and Barnhart to probably before 1200.^[3] The Middle English Dictionary also has the wider senses of a gathering of people and of a band of followers, such as the twelve apostles.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Latin conventus meant an assembly; in English it took the special sense of a religious community, at first of either sex.^[7][2] Chaucer used covent fourteen times, for the members of a religious house or a group of friars or monks.^[16] The wider medieval senses, a group of followers (about 1300 to 1548) and an assembly or meeting (before 1382 to 1654), died out,^[5][4] as did a group of twelve monks forming one community, recorded from about 1300.^[5] The buildings of a religious community are recorded from about 1450,^[5][2] and Johnson (1755) gave both "an assembly of religious persons" and "a religious house; an abbey; a monastery; a nunnery".^[17] The restriction to a house of nuns came at the end of the 18th century: the OED first finds it in 1795,^[5][7][2][6] although Barnhart records the sense of a group of nuns before 1450.^[3] In slang convent was a brothel from about 1671 to 1850.^[5][18] A verb convent, borrowed from the Latin participle stem convent-, meant to summon a person before a judge or to call people together; the OED records it from about 1460,^[5] Merriam-Webster from 1514, and it is now obsolete.^[11][15]

Timeline

• c. 1225 – a religious institution and its house, in the Ancrene Riwle.^[5]
• c. 1230 – a community living under religious vows.^[5]
• c. 1300 – a group of twelve monks or friars; a band of followers (obsolete by 1548).^[5]
• before 1382 – an assembly or meeting (obsolete by 1654), in the Wycliffite Bible.^[5]
• c. 1450 – the buildings of a religious community.^[5]
• c. 1460 – verb convent, to summon (now obsolete).^[5]
• 1555 – a monastic institution of another religion, especially Buddhism.^[5]
• c. 1671 – slang, a brothel (obsolete by 1850).^[5][18]
• 1795 – a house of nuns, a nunnery.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A community of nuns living together under religious vows; formerly, any such community of men or women.^[11][19][5]
2. The building or buildings in which such a community lives.^[19][11][5]
3. A convent school, run by nuns.^[19]
4. (obsolete, before 1382–1654) An assembly or gathering of people.^[5][4]
5. (obsolete slang, c. 1671–1850) A brothel.^[5][18]

Related words

• convenance
• convene
• convenient
• conventicle
• convention
• covenant
• Covent Garden
• coven
• covin
• conventual

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
8. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
11. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
13. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
16. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
17. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
18. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
19. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins