Conditioner

How to spell conditioner

11 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce conditioner

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does conditioner mean?

1. nounA product or device that improves the state of something, such as a hair, fabric, or air treatment.

Conditioner in a sentence

• She massaged the conditioner into her hair before rinsing.

• The laundry conditioner left the towels soft and fresh.

Where does conditioner come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word builds on 'condition', which English borrowed in the 1300s through Old French 'condicion' from the Latin 'condicio', meaning an agreement, stipulation, or the state in which something exists. That Latin noun came from 'condicere', 'to agree upon' or 'to talk over together', formed from 'con-' (together) and 'dicere' (to say or speak). Over time 'condition' shifted from a spoken agreement toward the general sense of the state or quality of a thing, as in good or poor condition. The verb 'to condition', meaning to bring into a desired state, gave rise in the modern era to 'conditioner', the agent noun naming a product or device that improves the condition of something. The familiar uses for hair, fabric, and air all date from the twentieth century, and the silent journey through Latin 'dicere' is why the unstressed middle 'di' is so easy to slur or misspell.

How the word is built

• con- (together)
• dit (from Latin dicere, to say/agree)
• -ion (noun)
• -er (agent/thing that does)