CONCLAVE

[Dr. Goodword]

• conclave •

Pronunciation: kahn-klayv • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun

Meaning: 1. A confidential meeting of members of a family or other close-knit organization. 2. The chambers in which cardinals of the Catholic Church meet to elect a new Pope, the cardinals participating in such a meeting, or the meeting itself.

Notes: Today's topical Good Word has a funny adjective, conclavical, that sounds more like a bone than a chamber where a Pope is elected. A participant in a conclave is known as a conclavist.

In Play: The conclave that is in the news in 2013 is the conclave that just elected a new pope, Pope Francis. The outgoing pope, Pope Benedict XVI, was the first pope to resign since Gregory XII in 1415. The current conclave of Roman Catholic bishops is a far cry from the conclaves of the Mafia families that Mario Puzo describes in his novel, The Godfather, though these two applications of the word amply demonstrate its flexibility and breadth. Today's Good Word is not limited to powerful families: "Mom has to call a family conclave to decide what to have for dinner."

Word History: Today's Good Word, appropriately enough, comes to us from Italy. Italian inherited their word conclave unchanged from Latin conclave "a room, chambers, a suite". This word most probably originated as "locked room", for it is made up of com- "(together) with" + clavis "a key". Clavis seems related to clavus "nail", perhaps because the original key was a bent nail. Russian klyuch "key", from the same source, shows weak evidence that the meaning of its word for "key" passed through that of "nail". Russian contains a word klin "wedge, wooden peg" that shares the initial consonant cluster with klyuch. (Today we needn't hold a conclave to conclude that Ollie Louia deserves a word of appreciation for suggesting today's very topical Good Word.)

[MTC]

A second conclave has appeared. One conclave has joined another for a meeting. In so doing the word conclave has enacted its own meaning. If conclave reappeared multiple times, the enactment would be more apparent, e.g., conclave, conclave, conclave, conclave... Similarly, if the word "repeat" repetively appeared it would enact itself, e.g, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat,...Is there a word to describe this phenomenon? Autological words describe themselves, e.g., short is a short word. Onamatapoeic words sound out their meaning. But neither autological nor onamatapoeic quite fits. Perhaps we could simply say conclave has begun to "enact itself."

[Perry Lassiter]

Consider group theory in math and logic. It includes the group of all groups and a null group, which is an oxymoron.

[LukeJavan8]

Coffee Clutch that rotates among housewives: conclave??

[Dr. Goodword]

I regret the mistake. I don't know what happened, but when conclave ran the first time, shilly-shally was reported to the archive. My memory doesn't last 10 days, so when I saw that I thought that conclave hadn't gone out.

In addition to adjusting to the Rackspace cloud, I'm now adjusting to Windows 7. I guess our online software has to get use to the changes, too.

[Philip Hudson]

Luke: Us red-necks calls it a coffee klatch, as do most other people I know. But if a coffee clutch is what you wife goes to, more power to her.

[LukeJavan8]

Luke: Us red-necks calls it a coffee klatch, as do most other people I know. But if a coffee clutch is what you wife goes to, more power to her.

They say "clutch", but it could be 'klatch". Some of us
are just glad not to be invited.

[Philip Hudson]

Amen.

[Perry Lassiter]

You religious types please pray for Doc G as he gets used to Windows 7, because heaven help us when he goes to W8!

[Philip Hudson]

This topic hasn't included much about the recent Conclave of Cardinals and their selection of the new Pope of the Catholic Church. I note with satisfaction the almost unanimous applause given to the selection of Pope Frances by non-Catholics. Here is a theologically resolute conservative who has his focus on helping the poor. What more can we ask?

[LukeJavan8]

In this part of the world the Jesuits are appreciated
especially in the running various boys prep schools
and Universities. I understand their founder
wanted them to educate the children of the rich
in order to teach the rich to care for the poor.
While I applaud this there is also a certain arrogance
they show, appearing at family gatherings of the
well-to-do and not the poor. One wonders. There
is also a saying about the Jesuits: (at funerals)
that goes "Where there is a will (testate) there
is a Jesuit". So a Jesuit circulating among the
poor is indeed rare from what we experience here.