convivial

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin convīviālis (“pertaining to a feast”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from Latin convīvium (“feast, banquet”),^[2][3][4][7] from convīvō (“to live together, dine together”),^[3][8] formed from com- (“with, together”) and vīvō (“to live”),^[3][4][9] from Proto-Indo-European *gwei- (“to live”).^[3][4] Barnhart allows that it may also have come through French convivial,^[10][11] and the OED compares the modern French adjective.^[2] The OED notes that the commoner word in Latin was convīvālis, the source of the rare English convival.^[2][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Belonging to a feast or banquet, festive: 1669, in John Denham's Cato Major,^[2] the passage that Johnson later quoted for the word ("Which feasts, convivial meetings we did name").^[12] Barnhart dates it to before 1668,^[10][11] Merriam-Webster Unabridged to about 1668,^[13] and Etymonline to the 1660s.^[3]

Semantic evolution

At first the word described the feast itself and what suited it.^[2][14] In the 18th century it came to describe people who enjoy eating and drinking in good company,^[11][3] first recorded in 1754 in Thomas Newton's edition of Paradise Lost.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined it as "relating to an entertainment; festal; social".^[12] Today it is used mostly of a friendly, lively atmosphere or occasion.^[5][13]

Timeline

• 1669 – of or belonging to a feast; festive.^[2]
• 1754 – of people, fond of feasting and good company; jovial.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Friendly, lively and sociable; festive: The dinner ended in a convivial mood.^[5][13]
2. Of a person, fond of feasting, drinking and good company; jovial.^[13][2][7]
3. Of or relating to a feast or banquet.^[13][2][7]

Word family

• conviviality
• convivially
• convivialist
• nonconvivial

Related words

• convive
• convival
• vivid

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
6. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
10. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
11. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
12. ^ 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.
13. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
14. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press