complot

Note: Compare also medieval Picard conploit "understanding among a group of people, agreement," complote "crowd, press of combatants in a battle." Französisches etymologisches Wörterbuch points to a substitution of pelote "ball (as of yarn, ribbon, etc.)" for complote in a manuscript of the twelfth century Roman d'Alixandre and suggests that behind complote is a hypothetical *compeloter "to form into a ball"—however, evidence for such a verb is lacking.