conclave

Definition

The set of apartments in which cardinals are secluded while the process to elect a pope takes place.

Etymology

PIE word *ḱóm The noun is derived from Late Middle English conclave (“private chamber; (Roman Catholicism) private room where election of the Pope takes place; meeting held for this purpose”), borrowed from Middle French conclave (modern French conclave), or directly from its etymon Latin conclāve (“chamber, room; enclosed space that can be locked; dining hall”), from con- (prefix denoting a being or bringing together of several objects) (combining form of cum (“(along) with”)) + clāvis (“key”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kleh₂w- (“(noun) crook, hook; peg; (verb) to close”)). The verb is derived from the noun.

Example Sentences

• "On Friday, St. John's Day, the 27th of December, the cardinals entered the conclave. […] Two hours before nightfall, the whole body met again in a chapel within the conclave, and after the bull of pope Julius [II] against simoniacal practices had been read, every cardinal, in the presence of the foreign ambassadors, took his corporal oath upon the Holy Evangelists to observe the bull to the best of his abilities."
• "Of the ten Cardinals now forming the Conclave, five voted for Cardinal Geoffredo Castiglione [later Pope Celestine IV], a Milanese, nephew to Urban III, and three for Cardinal Romano [da Porto]."
• "Two years afterwards Pius IX died, and the Conclave met in the Vatican to choose his successor. Its deliberations were short."

Related Words