Editing Convent (section)

==Etymology and usage==
The term ''convent'' derives via Old French from Latin ''conventus'', perfect participle of the verb ''convenio'', meaning "to convene, to come together". It was first used in this sense when the eremitical life began to be combined with the cenobitical. The original reference was to the gathering of mendicants who spent much of their time travelling. Technically, a [[monastery]] is a secluded community of monastics, whereas a friary or convent is a community of [[Mendicant orders|mendicants]] (which, by contrast, might be located in a city), and a [[canonry]] is a community of [[canon regular|canons regular]]. The terms [[abbey]] and [[priory]] can be applied to both monasteries and canonries; an abbey is headed by an [[abbot]], and a priory is a lesser dependent house headed by a [[Prior (ecclesiastical)|prior]]. In the [[Middle Ages]], convents often provided to women a way to excel, as they were considered inferior to men.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Hunt |first=Julie |title=Nuns: powerful women of the Middle Ages |url=https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/multimedia/monastic-life-_nuns--powerful-women-of-the-middle-ages/45905498 |access-date=2022-09-26 |website=[[Swissinfo]] |date=21 July 2020 |language=en}}</ref> In convents, women were educated and were able to write books and publish works on gardening or musicology<ref name=":0" /> or on religion and philosophy. The [[abbess]] of a convent was often also involved in decisions of secular life and interacted with politicians and businessmen.<ref name=":0" /> Unlike an [[abbey]], a convent is not placed under the responsibility of an abbot or an abbess, but of a superior or prior. 

In modern English usage, since about the 19th century, the term ''convent'' almost invariably refers to a community of women,<ref>See [http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=convent Etym on line]</ref> while monastery and [[friary]] are used for communities of men. In historical usage they are often interchangeable, with ''convent'' especially likely to be used for a friary. When applied to religious houses in [[Eastern Orthodoxy]] and [[Buddhism]], English refers to all houses of male religious as monasteries and of female religious as convents.