couvent

Forms

couvent m (plural couvents)^[1] Old French convent, cuvent, covent and the nominative cuvenz.^[2][3][4] The spelling convent was still recorded by the Académie in 1718 and only then gave way to couvent.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin conventus (“assembly, meeting”), adapted to French speech.^[2][3][5] The Latin word was the noun of action of conveniō (“to come together”), from veniō (“to come”).^[3][6] In Christian Latin it had come to mean an assembly of monks or a congregation, which gave the sense “cloister, convent” spread from northern France, while the south kept monastērium.^[2][3] The FEW suggests that the form with ⟨n⟩ may be only an etymological spelling.^[2][7] Wiktionary instead treats the word as inherited, through Old French cuvent.^[1]

Cognate with Old Occitan coven, Italian convento and Spanish convento.^[7][8] The older spelling passed into English as convent in the 13th century and was borrowed back into French as convent, the general assembly of Freemasons (1886).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the earliest record, the Oxford Psalter of the early 12th century, convent means “company, gathering”, a sense that lasted until 1547.^[2][3] The religious sense, a house where the members of a religious community live, appears in Wace's Brut in 1155 as cuvenz.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The classical sense “meeting, company” died out in the 16th century, pushed aside by the religious sense of 1155, which was soon extended to the community of monks or nuns living in the house (about 1165).^[3][2] Littré still gives 13th-century examples of convent meaning “union” and “company”.^[8]

In the 18th century the word named a place of retreat for laywomen kept by nuns, and by 1863 a boarding school for girls run by nuns; this school sense has gone from general French but survives in Mauritius.^[3][2] The word is sometimes used figuratively for a strict and austere place, and in African French it names a place for ritual ceremonies such as initiation.^[3] Slang used couvent for a brothel, recorded from 1785.^[9]

Timeline

• Early 12th century – Convent “company” in the Oxford Psalter.^[2]
• 1155 – Cuvenz, a house of a religious community, in Wace's Brut.^[2]
• 1160–1174 – Cuvent names the community itself, in Wace's Roman de Rou.^[2]
• 1547 – Last record of the sense “company”.^[2]
• 1718 – The Académie still records the spelling convent.^[2][3]
• 18th century – A place of retreat for laywomen kept by nuns.^[2]
• 1785 – Slang sense “brothel”, in Sade.^[9]
• 1863 – Littré records the sense “girls' boarding school run by nuns”.^[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A house in which monks or nuns live together under a rule, a convent or monastery: un couvent de bénédictines.^[10][11][2] Entrer au couvent: to become a nun.^[10]
2. The members of such a community taken together.^[10][8][6]
3. (dated) A boarding school for girls run by nuns.^[12][8][3]

Word family

• couventine

Related words

• conventuel
• convent
• convention
• convenir
• monastère
• Latin conventus

References

1. ^ a b c 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 Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 2, 1131a
6. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
7. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
8. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
9. ^ a b Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
10. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
11. ^ Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)
12. ^ Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)