Convents

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A community or establishment for religious women who dedicate their lives to spiritual practices and service
2. A place where nuns live in seclusion, engaging in prayer, work, and religious duties
3. An institution where women take vows of celibacy and live according to specific religious rules and traditions

Etymology: The plural "convents" is simply the plural of "convent," so the story is that of the singular. "Convent" is a doublet of "coven": both descend from the same Latin verb, "convenio," meaning "to come together," and the two words split apart in English. "Coven" kept the older, shorter form and came to mean a gathering of witches, while "convent" took on its more formal sense of a religious community. Its ancestor was the Latin "conventus," a gathering or assembly, built from the prefix "con-" ("together") and "venio" ("to come"). In Middle English the word appeared as "covent" and "convent," borrowed through Old French "covent." Both forms existed side by side for a time, which is why the same root produced two distinct English words. The assembly sense of "coming together" survives in "convene," which came directly from the same Latin verb, so a convent was, at its root, simply a group that had come together.

Synonyms: monasteries, abbeys