convenience
/kənˈviːniəns/noun
The quality of being easy, useful, or suitable
From Latin con- (with) + Latin venire (to come).
Lineage
con-
venire
The story
Picture people coming together in one place: that is the original drama inside convenience. Latin speakers built the word from com-, “together,” and venīre, “to come,” producing convenientia—“a meeting together,” and then “agreement” or “suitability.” English borrowed it in the late 14th century, when convenience meant something closer to conformity or appropriateness than to a microwave or a corner shop. The modern sense of “an easy or comfortable advantage” appeared in the 1670s, while convenience store is recorded from 1965. Its Latin family is crowded with familiar faces: to convene is to come together, a convention is a coming-together, and a venue is literally a place one comes to. So whenever convenience saves you a trip, the word is quietly remembering its ancient promise: things should come together with less trouble.
Modern usage
A cynical label for prioritizing ease or comfort, sometimes at the expense of care or principle
- Heard in
- informal internet speech
Words from the same roots
Sources
- Etymonlineconvenience, gadget, commodity, terminology, john
- Urban Dictionaryconvenience