condition

From Middle English condicioun, from Old French condicion (French condition), from Latin condicio. Unetymological change in spelling due to confusion with conditio.

• enPR: kəndĭshʹən, IPA^(key): /kənˈdɪʃən/

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -ɪʃən

condition (countable and uncountable, plural conditions)

1. A logical clause or phrase that a conditional statement uses. The phrase can either be true or false.
2. A requirement or requisite.

   Environmental protection is a condition for sustainability.   What other planets might have the right conditions for life?   The union had a dispute over sick time and other conditions of employment.

3. (law) A clause in a contract or agreement indicating that a certain contingency may modify the principal obligation in some way.
4. The health status of a medical patient.

   My aunt couldn't walk up the stairs in her condition.

5. The state or quality.
   • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 4, in The Celebrity:

     Mr. Cooke at once began a tirade against the residents of Asquith for permitting a sandy and generally disgraceful condition of the roads. So roundly did he vituperate the inn management in particular, and with such a loud flow of words, that I trembled lest he should be heard on the veranda.

   National reports on the condition of public education are dismal.   The condition of man can be classified as civilized or uncivilized.

6. A particular state of being.

   Hypnosis is a peculiar condition of the nervous system.   Steps were taken to ameliorate the condition of slavery.   Security is defined as the condition of not being threatened.   Aging is a condition over which we are powerless.

7. (obsolete) The situation of a person or persons, particularly their social and/or economic class, rank.

   A man of his condition has no place to make request.

   • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling. In Six Volumes, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: Printed by A[ndrew] Millar, […], OCLC 928184292:

     This zeal was now inflamed by Lady Bellaston, who had told her the preceding evening, that she was well satisfied from the conduct of Sophia, and from her carriage to his lordship, that all delays would be dangerous, and that the only way to succeed was to press the match forward with such rapidity that the young lady should have no time to reflect, and be obliged to consent while she scarce knew what she did; in which manner, she said, one-half of the marriages among people of condition were brought about.

• For quotations of use of this term, see Citations:condition.

• (the health or state of something): fettle

• conditional
• precondition

• condition subsequent
• in condition
• statement of condition

condition (third-person singular simple present conditions, present participle conditioning, simple past and past participle conditioned)

1. To subject to the process of acclimation.

   I became conditioned to the absence of seasons in San Diego.

2. To subject to different conditions, especially as an exercise.

   They were conditioning their shins in their karate class.

3. (transitive) To place conditions or limitations upon.
   • Tennyson

     Seas, that daily gain upon the shore, / Have ebb and flow conditioning their march.

4. To shape the behaviour of someone to do something.
5. (transitive) To treat (the hair) with hair conditioner.
6. (transitive) To contract; to stipulate; to agree.
   • Beaumont and Fletcher

     Pay me back my credit, / And I'll condition with ye.

   • Sir Walter Raleigh

     It was conditioned between Saturn and Titan, that Saturn should put to death all his male children.

7. (transitive) To test or assay, as silk (to ascertain the proportion of moisture it contains).

   (Can we find and add a quotation of McElrath to this entry?)

8. (US, colleges, transitive) To put under conditions; to require to pass a new examination or to make up a specified study, as a condition of remaining in one's class or in college.

   to condition a student who has failed in some branch of study

9. To impose upon an object those relations or conditions without which knowledge and thought are alleged to be impossible.
   • Sir W. Hamilton

     To think of a thing is to condition.

From Middle French condition, from Old French condicion, Borrowed from Latin condiciō, condiciōnis.

• IPA^(key): /kɔ̃.di.sjɔ̃/

• Audio

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condition f (plural conditions)

1. term, condition
2. condition, state

   en bonne condition - In good condition

3. social status, walk of life

   Le couple se contentait de soirées entre amis de conditions diverses. — The couple was content with partying with friends from all walks of life.

• à condition que
• à condition de
• conditionnel

• “condition” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

From Old French condicion, from Latin condicio

condition f (plural conditions)

1. condition (state, quality)

• French: condition