conventicle

English

Etymology

From Late Middle English conventicle, conventicule (“a gathering, meeting (especially a secret or unlawful one); (derogatory) a church”),[1] from Latin conventiculum (“assembly; meeting (or the place involved); association”),[2] from conventus (“assembled, convened”) + -culum (“suffix forming diminutives of nouns”). Conventus is the perfect passive participle of conveniō (“to assemble, convene, meet together”), from con- (“suffix meaning ‘together, with’”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm (“along, at, next to, with”)) + veniō (“to approach, come”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gʷem- (“to step”) + *-yéti (“suffix forming intransitive, imperfective verbs”)).

Pronunciation

Noun

conventicle (plural conventicles)

  1. A secret, unauthorized or illegal religious meeting.
    • 1581, D. Fulke [i.e., William Fulke], A Briefe Confutation, of a Popish Discourse: Lately Set Forth, and Presumptuously Dedicated to the Queenes Most Excellent Maiestie: By Iohn Howlet [pseudonym; Robert Persons], or Some Other Birde of the Night, vnder that Name. Contayning Certaine Reasons, why Papistes Refuse to Come to Church, which Reasons are here Inserted and Set Downe at Large, with Their Generall Answeres, London: Printed [by Thomas Dawson] for George Byshop, OCLC 931154147, folio 12, recto and verso:
      [I]f when Luther firſt began to teach new doctrine, the catholiks at that time had not vouchſafed to giue him the hering, but had auoided his prechings & preuy couenticles, ther had not bin now in the worlde, either Lutheran, Swinglian, Calueniſt, Puritan, Anabaptiſt, Trinetarie, Family of loue, Adamite, or the lyke: whereof now there are ſo many thouſands abroad, al ſpringing of that firſt ſecte, and troubling at this day the whole worlde, […]
  2. The place where such a meeting is held.
  3. A Quaker meetinghouse.

Translations

Verb

conventicle (third-person singular simple present conventicles, present participle conventicling, simple past and past participle conventicled)

  1. To hold a secret, unauthorized or illegal religious meeting.

References
  1. “conventicle” in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 26 October 2017.
  2. “conventicle” (US) / “conventicle” (UK) in Oxford Dictionaries, Oxford University Press.
  • “conventicle” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary, 2001–2019.

Middle English

Etymology

From Old French [Term?][1] or Latin conventus (“assembled, convened”) + -culum (“suffix forming diminutives of nouns”). Conventus is the perfect passive participle of conveniō (“to assemble, convene, meet together”), from con- (“suffix meaning ‘together, with’”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm (“along, at, next to, with”)) + veniō (“to approach, come”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gʷem- (“to step”) + *-yéti (“suffix forming intransitive, imperfective verbs”)). Equivalent to covent +‎ -icle.

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /kɔnˈvɛn.ti.kl(ə)/

Noun

conventicle (plural conventicles)

  1. An assembly, a gathering, a meeting, especially one that is secret or unlawful.
  2. (derogatory) A church.

Alternative forms
  • conventicule

Derived terms

References
  1. “conventicle” in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 26 October 2017.
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