Origin and history of convent

convent(n.)

c. 1200, covent, cuvent, "association or community of persons devoted to religious life," from Anglo-French covent, from Old French convent, covent "monastery, religious community," from Latin conventus "assembly," used in Medieval Latin for "religious house," originally past participle of convenire "to come together, meet together, assemble; unite, join, combine; agree with, accord; be suitable or proper (to)," from assimilated form of com "with, together" (see con-) + venire "to come" (from PIE root *gwa- "to go, come").

Meaning "a house or set of buildings occupied by a community devoted to religious life" is from mid-15c. Not exclusively feminine until 18c. The form with restored Latin -n- emerged early 15c. The Middle English form lingers in London's Covent Garden district (notorious late 18c. for brothels), so called because it had been the garden of a defunct monastery.

COVENT GARDEN ABBESS. A bawd.

COVENT GARDEN AGUE. The venereal diſeaſe.

["Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue," 1796]

Related: Conventual.

also from c. 1200

Entries linking to convent

coven(n.)

"a gathering of witches," 1660s, earlier "a meeting, gathering, assembly" (c. 1500); a variant form of covent, cuvent, from Old French covent, convent, from Latin conventus (see convent).

Covent (13c.) also meant "group of men or women in a monastery or convent." The variant form, and the association of this spelling of the word with witches, arose in Scotland but was not popularized until Sir Walter Scott used it in this sense in "Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft" (1830).

Efter that tym ther vold meit bot somtymes a Coven, somtymes mor, somtymes les; bot a Grand Meitting vold be about the end of ilk Quarter. Ther is threttein persones in ilk Coeven; and ilk on of vs has an Sprit to wait wpon ws, quhan ve pleas to call wpon him. I remember not all the Spritis names; bot thair is on called "Swein," quhilk waitis wpon the said Margret Wilson in Aulderne; he is still clothed in grass-grein .... ["Criminal Trials in Scotland," III, appendix, p.606, confession of Issobell Gowdie in Lochloy in 1662]

covent(n.)

"a convent or monastery" (early 13c.), also "a meeting, gathering, assembly" (c. 1300); an early variant of convent (n.) that lingered into the 17c.

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