conventicle

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The Word of the Day for December 18 is:

conventicle   \kun-VEN-tih-kul\   noun 
     1 : assembly, meeting 
     2 : an assembly of an irregular or unlawful character 
    *3 : an assembly for religious worship; especially : a 
secret meeting for worship not sanctioned by law 
     4 : meetinghouse

Example sentence: 
     Religious dissidents in 17th-century England could be 
arrested for attending conventicles.

Did you know? 
     "Conventicle" comes to us from the Latin "conventiculum," 
the diminutive of "conventus," meaning "assembly." "Conventus" 
(which also gave English the word "convent") is itself derived 
from the Latin word "convenire," meaning "to come together." 
The Latin "conventiculum" meant "place of assembly" (it was 
applied in particular to Roman Christian meetinghouses) or 
simply "assembly." The English "conventicle" originally had the 
simple "assembly" meaning. It then developed an application to 
illegal meetings, which, in turn, led to the arrival of a sense 
describing secret meetings for worship in a religion proscribed 
by law. And finally, "conventicle" developed a fourth sense 
of "meetinghouse," echoing the earlier use of "conventiculum." 

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.