Convince
/kənˈvɪns/noun
To persuade someone to believe or do something.
Did you know?Convince comes from Latin *convincere*, originally meaning “to defeat, overcome, or prove guilty,” so its earliest energy was courtroom conquest, not gentle persuasion.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*weik-
“to fight, conquer, or overpower”
Latin
Latin
vincere
“to conquer, defeat, overcome”
Latin
Latin
convincere
“to overcome completely; prove wrong or guilty”
Old French
Old French
conveincre
“to prove guilty or refute”
Middle English
English
convincen
“to prove someone wrong or guilty”
Modern English
English
convince
“to persuade or cause someone to believe something”