counciln.

Etymology: In Branch I, representing Old French cuncile, ONFrench concilie, = Latin concilium ( < con- together + cal- to call) a convocation, assembly, meeting, union, connection, close conjunction; sometimes an assembly for consultation, in which sense it became confused with consilium an advisory body (though the confusion was perhaps in most cases due to later scribes of manuscripts). In mediæval times concilium was mainly appropriated to the assemblies convoked to settle points of doctrine and discipline in the Church, or the relations between Church and State in particular countries,—the Councils. An early Latin-Greek Gloss. in Du Cange has Concilium, συνέδριον, συμβούλιον, σύνοδος; and an ancient Codex of the Canons quoted by him has ‘Synodum autem ex Graeco interpretari Comitatum, vel Cœtum; Concilii autem nomen tractum ex more Romano’. In Old French consilium came down as a living word in the form conseil, while concile (concire) was used for the ecclesiastical concilium, which sense it still exclusively retains. In English, the two words were, from the beginning, completely confused: conseil was frequently spelt conceil; concile was spelt consile and conceil; and the two words were treated as one, under a variety of forms, of which counseil, later counsel, was the central type. In the 16th cent. differentiation again began: councel, later council, was established for the ecclesiastical concilium, French concile; and this spelling has been extended to all cases in which the word means a deliberative assembly or advisory body (where Latin has consilium, French conseil), leaving counsel to the action of counselling and kindred senses. The practical distinction thus established between council and counsel does not correspond to Latin or French usage.