conveyance

Etymology

It is formed from English convey + -ance.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The verb convey is from Middle English conveien, from Anglo-Norman conveier and Old French convoiier (“to accompany, escort”),^[3][4][6] from a verb that the American Heritage Dictionary, Ayto and Hoad record as Medieval Latin conviō (“to accompany, escort”)^[7][8][9] and that Barnhart, Etymonline and Klein reconstruct for Vulgar Latin as *conviō,^[4][3][10] formed from Latin com- (“with, together”) and via (“way, road”), from Proto-Indo-European *wegh-.^[7][3] The Old French abstract noun was convoiement.^[3] Convoy is a doublet of the verb.^[4][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Guidance, in the Brut chronicle of about 1437 (manuscript of about 1453): Þe gouernaunce and þe conveyaunce of þe land.^[11] Barnhart also dates the noun to about 1437,^[12] and Etymonline to the mid-15th century.^[3] The transport of goods follows in the Rolls of Parliament in 1464.^[11] The OED's own record starts only in 1503–4, with an Act of Henry VII, for escorting or conducting.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The noun is the action of conveying in each of the verb's senses.^[2][5] The ordinary sense of carrying persons or goods was already current by the 16th century,^[2][11] while escorting faded by 1616.^[2] A taking away could also be furtive: from before 1529 the word meant stealing, in Skelton,^[2] and it could also mean cunning management and sleight of hand (1531–1704), and as a trick (1534–1661), as in Thomas More's subtyle conueyghaunces.^[2][5] Another line is legal: the transfer of property is recorded from 1523, then from 1576 the deed that effects it.^[2][3] A means of transport is first clear in the late 16th century.^[3][5] The OED's first quotation is from The Merry Wives of Windsor, bethinke you of some conueyance,^[2] a line that Johnson (1755) had filed under "the method of removing secretly from one place to another".^[13] The means of conveying could also be a passage or channel, as for water from 1577,^[2] then from 1840 a conducting pipe in an organ,^[2][5] which is behind a rare verb, usually the participle conveyanced (1874).^[2] The conveying of meaning in words, or style of expression, is recorded from 1543 to 1775.^[2][5]

Timeline

• c. 1437 – guidance.^[11][12]
• 1464 – the transport of goods.^[11] The OED's first record of the carriage of persons or goods is from about 1520.^[2]
• 1503 – escorting, conducting (obsolete by 1616).^[2]
• 1523 – the legal transfer of property.^[2]
• before 1529 – furtive carrying off, stealing.^[2]
• 1531 – cunning management, sleight of hand (obsolete by 1704).^[2]
• 1543 – the conveying of meaning by words (obsolete by 1775).^[2]
• 1576 – the document effecting a transfer of property.^[2] Etymonline dates it to the 1570s.^[3]
• 1577 – the conducting of running water, air or heat through a channel.^[2]
• before 1616 – a means of transport, a vehicle.^[2] Etymonline dates it to the 1590s.^[3]
• 1840 – a conducting pipe in an organ.^[2]
• 1874 – verb, usually the participle conveyanced.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The action of conveying; transporting or carrying: the conveyance of grain by barge.^[14][15][2]
2. A means of transport; a vehicle: a horse-drawn conveyance.^[14][2][5]
3. (law) The transfer of the legal title to property from one person to another.^[14][15][2]
4. (law) The deed or document that effects such a transfer.^[14][2]
5. The communicating or imparting of a thought or idea.^[15][2]
6. The conducting of water, heat or electricity through a channel or medium.^[15][2][5]
7. (archaic) Furtive carrying off; theft.^[5][2][13]
8. (obsolete, 1503–1616) Escorting or conducting.^[2][5]
9. (obsolete, 1531–1704) Cunning management; sleight of hand.^[2][5]
10. (obsolete, 1534–1661) A secret or cunning device; a trick.^[2][5]

Word family

• conveyancer
• nonconveyance
• conveyancing
• reconveyance

Related words

• convey
• convoy
• conveyor
• via

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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 z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
9. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ 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)
12. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
13. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
15. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster