Other forms: conclaves
A conclave is a private meeting held behind closed doors. Go into conclave, a conclave of ministers, the papal conclave.
The famous one elects a pope, and the cardinals are shut in until they agree. Used of any other meeting it carries a hint of secrecy, and often of scheming.
1nounconclaveA private meeting held behind closed doors.
“The heads of department went into conclave for most of the afternoon.”
conclave is a meeting.
Latin conclave means a room that locks, from com, together, plus clavis, a key; the cardinals electing a pope are shut in.
Proto-Indo-European
*kleh₂w- — (noun) crook, hook; peg; (verb) to close
Latin
conclāve — chamber, room; enclosed space that can be locked; dining hall
Middle French
conclave
Middle English
conclave — private chamber; (Roman Catholicism) private room where election of the Pope takes place; meeting held for this purpose
English, today
conclave
Built from
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- (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.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA