Etymologically
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convena

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈkɔn.wɛ.na][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈkɔɱ.ve.na][1]

Forms

convena m (genitive convenae); first declension[1] It is an adjective of either gender, and in the plural convenae it is used as a noun.[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is from Latin conveniō (“to come together”) + -a,[1][2][3] and the TLL compares advena (“newcomer”).[5] Veniō “to come” goes back to Proto-Italic *gʷn-je/o- and Proto-Indo-European *gʷm-ie/o- (“to come”).[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Plautus,[7][5] in the Miles Gloriosus, where a character undertakes to bring two lovers together (quī amantīs ūnā inter sē facerem convenās).[2][3][4]

Semantic evolution

As a plural noun it meant people who had gathered from elsewhere, strangers and refugees.[2][3][4] Cato writes that many such newcomers came there from the countryside,[5][2] Cicero that Romulus gathered shepherds and convenae and that Dionysius entrusted his bodyguard to such people and to savage barbarians,[2][5] and Livy speaks of a plebs of shepherds and convenae who had deserted their own peoples.[5][3] In later writers such as Solinus and Ammianus the adjective is used of rivers that flow together and of a crowd gathered from all sides.[2][5][3] Servius distinguishes the indigenae, born in a place, the advenae, who come from one other place, and the convenae, who come from several.[5]

As a proper name, Convenae was a community gathered by Pompey at the foot of the Pyrenees.[2] In medieval Britain the word was used of incomers, and once of a brood of chickens.[8]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it as an adjective, “meeting”.[2][5][7]
  • 234–149 BC – Cato uses the plural noun of newcomers from the countryside.[5][2][7]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of the people Romulus gathered.[2][5][7]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy speaks of a plebs of shepherds and convenae.[5][7]
  • c. 390 AD – Ammianus uses it of rivers flowing together.[2][5][7]
  • c. 400 AD – Servius distinguishes it from advena and indigena.[5][7]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Coming together, meeting; of rivers, flowing together.[2][3][5]

Noun

  1. (plural) People gathered from different places; strangers, refugees, immigrants.[2][3][4]
  2. (Medieval Latin) Incomers; a brood of poultry.[8]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  4. ^ a b c d Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  7. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  8. ^ a b Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press