Conditioned

How to spell conditioned

11 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce conditioned

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does conditioned mean?

1. verbTrained or accustomed to behave or respond in a particular way through repeated experience.
2. verbTreated something to bring it into a good or desired physical state.

Conditioned in a sentence

• Years of early shifts had conditioned him to wake before the alarm.

• She conditioned her hair with a rich balm the night before the wedding.

• Relentless advertising conditioned shoppers to expect a discount every weekend.

• The stable hand had conditioned the leather saddle with oil to keep it supple.

Where does conditioned come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin noun condicio, which meant an agreement, a stipulation, or the terms on which something was settled. That noun grew out of the verb condicere, formed from com- (meaning 'together') and dicere (meaning 'to say' or 'to declare'), so the original sense was literally a matter that parties had spoken about and agreed together. English took the noun 'condition' through Old French in the 1300s, where it broadened from a contractual term into the general idea of the state or circumstances of a thing. By the 1600s 'condition' had become a verb meaning to bring something into a desired state, and the past form 'conditioned' followed naturally. In the twentieth century psychologists such as Pavlov gave it a fresh technical sense of training a reliable response, which is why we now speak of conditioned habits as well as conditioned hair or air. The spelling keeps the Latin -dit- buried under the soft 'ti' sound, and the silent agreement of con- and dit is a useful reminder that the trap lies in the -tioned ending rather than the easy front of the word.

How the word is built

• con- (together, from Latin com-)
• dit (from Latin dicere/condicio: to declare, agree)
• -ion (noun)
• -ed (past tense / adjective ending)