Coffee has initially been a food – chewed, not sipped. Early African tribes consume coffee by grinding the berries together, adding some animal fat, and rolling the treats into tiny edible energy balls.
CONVENTICLE
conventicle, meetinghouse
(noun) a building for religious assembly (especially Nonconformists, e.g., Quakers)
conventicle
(noun) a secret unauthorized meeting for religious worship
Source: WordNet® 3.1
Etymology
Noun
conventicle (plural conventicles)
A secret, unauthorized or illegal religious meeting.
The place where such a meeting is held.
A Quaker meetinghouse.
Verb
conventicle (third-person singular simple present conventicles, present participle conventicling, simple past and past participle conventicled)
To hold a secret, unauthorized or illegal religious meeting.
Source: Wiktionary
Con*ven"ti*cle, n. Etym: [L. conventiculum, dim. of conventus: cf. F. conventicule. See Convent, n.]
1. A small assembly or gathering; esp., a secret assembly. They are commanded to abstain from all conventicles of men whatsoever. Ayliffe.
2. An assembly for religious worship; esp., such an assembly held privately, as in times of persecution, by Nonconformists or Dissenters in England, or by Covenanters in Scotland; -- often used opprobriously, as if those assembled were heretics or schismatics. The first Christians could never have had recourse to nocturnal or clandestine conventicles till driven to them by the violence of persecution. Hammond. A sort of men who . . . attend its [the curch of England's] service in the morning, and go with their wives to a conventicle in the afternoon. Swift.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition
Recent Word Finds
Word of the Day
2 May 2025
MINESHAFT
(noun) excavation consisting of a vertical or sloping passageway for finding or mining ore or for ventilating a mine
Coffee Trivia
