condicio

Condicio is a Latin noun most often encountered in scholarship through the form conditio, meaning a condition, term, or stipulation. In classical Latin, the term broadly covered both a hypothetical state and a binding term attached to an agreement. In later Latin texts, the form conditio became standard in legal and scholastic contexts, while condicio appears as a variant in some manuscripts.

Etymology and cognates: The word is the ancestor of modern Romance-language terms such as Spanish condición, Italian condizione, and French condition. In English, the influence is seen primarily in historical or translational uses, with contemporary writing preferring the broader word “condition.”

Usage and contexts: In philosophy and logic, conditio denotes a conditional or dependent state, analogous to conditional propositions in syllogistic and early modern logic. In law and contract drafting, a conditio refers to a condition attached to an obligation or agreement. A well-known Latin expression is conditio sine qua non, literally “a condition without which not,” used to denote a necessary condition for an effect to occur.

Modern reception: Today, the Latin term is mainly encountered in historical texts, legal Latin, or discussions of medieval and early modern scholarship. In everyday English and most modern legal contexts, the word condition is used rather than conditio, though translations of Latin sources may retain the traditional form.

See also: conditio sine qua non.