convenir

Forms

convenir (first-person singular present convengo, first-person singular preterite convine, past participle convenido)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin conveniō (“to come together, meet; to agree; to be fitting”).^[2][3][4][1] The Latin verb is formed con- (“together”) and veniō (“to come”), the source of venir;^[1][5][6] Wiktionary gives it as Proto-Italic *komgʷəniō for Proto-Italic.^[1][5][6] Corominas glosses the Latin verb as “to go to the same place, gather”.^[2][3]

The same Latin word is Portuguese convir, Galician convir, Catalan convenir, Occitan convenir, French convenir, Italian convenire and Romanian conveni.^[1][7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the word to a document of 1206 published by Menéndez Pidal.^[2][3] The CDH has earlier hits in the Fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200, in a 13th-century copy), of everything that convinie “was fitting” for the service of the Lord, and in the Cortes de Benavente of 1202, with the phrase conbiene á saber “namely”.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Old Spanish used the verb above all impersonally, “it is fitting, it is necessary”, and for “to belong to, suit”;^[10][11] Berceo has both.^[10][11] Alfonso X's prose also has it for “to cohabit with a woman” and for “to pair, match”.^[12] Cuervo calls the sense “to gather in one place” a Latinism forgotten in his day, and records the legal use “to appear before a court”.^[13] The 1729 Autoridades put “to be of the same opinion” first, then “to be useful, matter” and “to belong, be suited to”.^[14][15] The Academy's 1884 edition had the senses of today's DLE, including “to agree, come to terms” in the reflexive.^[16][4]

The phrase conviene a saber “namely” is frequent in documents from the 13th century and in the Americas from the 1520s.^[9][17][4] In Antioquia and Chile le convenía was said of a misfortune that was bound to happen to someone.^[18]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – the Fazienda de Ultra Mar uses convinie “was fitting”.^[9]
• 1202 – the CDH's text of the Cortes de Benavente has conbiene á saber.^[9]
• 1206 – the first record in Corominas, as is conveniencia in the form convenenza.^[2][3]
• 1240 – the Fuero Juzgo uses convenir and convenible.^[2]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses conviene “it is necessary”.^[12]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin convenio for convenir con otro.^[19]
• 1520 – the first record in the Americas, in Darién.^[17]
• 1591 – Percyvall glosses it “to agree, to be necessary, to be expedient”.^[20]
• 1729 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records its irregular forms convengo and convine.^[14]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To agree, be of the same opinion: Todos convinieron en que era mejor esperar.^[4][1]
2. (intransitive) Of several people: to gather in the same place, convene.^[4][21]
3. (intransitive) To correspond to, belong to.^[4]
4. (intransitive) To matter, be fitting or convenient: Te conviene dormir más.^[4][1]
5. (obsolete) To have sexual relations.^[4][12]
6. (reflexive) To come to terms, reach an agreement.^[4]
7. (law) Of two or more wills: to coincide, creating an obligation.^[4]

Word family

• conveniente
• conveniencia
• convenio
• inconveniente
• reconvenir

Related words

• convención
• venir
• convento
• Portuguese convir
• French convenir

Usage notes

The preterite is convine, convino, convinimos: Cuervo counted conveniste for conviniste among common errors.^[22][14] Conviene a saber “namely” is a set phrase.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 770
3. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. venir
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. convenir
5. ^ a b Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. convenir
6. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 978
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. convenir
10. ^ a b Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 142
11. ^ a b Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, p. 255
12. ^ a b c Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. convenir
13. ^ Cuervo, Rufino José (1886–1893), Diccionario de construcción y régimen de la lengua castellana, vols. I–II (A–D), París: A. Roger y F. Chernoviz, p. 2, 515
14. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, 576
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, 577
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 288
17. ^ a b Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. convenir
18. ^ Román, Manuel Antonio (1901–1918), Diccionario de chilenismos y de otras voces y locuciones viciosas, 5 vols., Santiago de Chile: Imprenta de San José, p. s.v. convenir
19. ^ Alonso Pedraz, Martín (1986), Diccionario medieval español: desde las Glosas Emilianenses y Silenses (s. X) hasta el siglo XV, 2 vols., Salamanca: Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca, p. s.v. convenir
20. ^ Percyvall, Richard (1591), Bibliothecae Hispanicae pars altera: containing a dictionarie in Spanish, English and Latine, London: John Jackson for Richard Watkins, p. 97
21. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. convenir
22. ^ Cuervo, Rufino José (1914), Apuntaciones críticas sobre el lenguaje bogotano, 6th ed., París: A. & R. Roger y F. Chernoviz, p. 256