[a. mod.F. convive (not in Cotgr., 1611), ad. L. convīva fellow-feaster, f. convīvĕre to live together with. The 17th-c. use was perh. directly from L.; there is app. a break between this and modern use, in which it is usually printed in italics as French.]
1. One who feasts with others; a fellow-banqueter, table-companion, mess-mate.
1648. J. Beaumont, Psyche, X. 211 (R.). A feast, which though with pleasures complement The ravish’d convives tongues it courted; yet [etc.].
1651. Fuller, Abel Rediv. (1867), I. 114. But idiots also his convives, had their share.
1658. J. Harrington, Prerog. Pop. Govt., II. v. (1700), 367. The Christians in these times, much after the manner of the Lacedemonian Convives, us’d to eat in public and together.
1820–1. R. K. Porter, Trav. Georgia, in Repository, No. 80. 111. Preserves, fruits, dried sweetmeats … engage the fair convives for some time.
1863. Whyte-Melville, Gladiators, II. 148. ‘What now?’ said he, ‘my old convive and boon companion.’
2. See quot.)
1851. Mayhew, Lond. Labour (1862), II. 218. We next come to the consideration of convives, or those [women] who live in the same house with a number of others.
