condition

Etymology

From Middle English condicioun, from Old French condicion (French condition), from Latin condicio. Unetymological change in spelling due to confusion with conditio.

noun

1. A state or quality.
   1. A particular state of being.
      Hypnosis is a peculiar condition of the nervous system.
      Steps were taken to ameliorate the condition of slavery.
      Security is defined as the condition of not being threatened.
      Aging is a condition over which we are powerless.
   2. (obsolete) The situation of a person or persons, particularly their social and/or economic class, rank.
      A man of his condition has no place to make requests.
   3. The health status of a medical patient.
      My aunt couldn’t walk up the stairs in her condition.
      1. A certain abnormal state of health; a malady or sickness.
2. A requirement.
   Environmental protection is a condition for sustainability.
   What other planets might have the right conditions for life?
   The union had a dispute over sick time and other conditions of employment.
3. A logical clause or phrase that a conditional statement uses. The phrase can either be true or false.
4. (law) A clause in a contract or agreement indicating that a certain contingency may modify the principal obligation in some way.

verb

1. To subject to the process of acclimation.
   I became conditioned to the absence of seasons in San Diego.
2. To subject to different conditions, especially as an exercise.
   They were conditioning their shins in their karate class.
3. To make dependent on a condition to be fulfilled; to make conditional on.
4. (transitive) To place conditions or limitations upon.
5. To shape the behaviour of someone to do something.
   The children were conditioned to speak up if they had any disagreements.
6. (transitive) To treat (the hair) with hair conditioner.
7. (transitive) To contract; to stipulate; to agree.
8. (transitive) To test or assay, as silk (to ascertain the proportion of moisture it contains).
   divers parcel of silk conditioned or assayed 1868, Once a Week
9. (US, colleges, transitive) To put under conditions; to require to pass a new examination or to make up a specified study, as a condition of remaining in one's class or in college.
   to condition a student who has failed in some branch of study
10. To impose upon an object those relations or conditions without which knowledge and thought are alleged to be impossible.
    "To think is thus to condition," because it is to know this or that object, and this or that object in a particular mode or condition. 1882, John Veitch, “Classification of the Laws of Knowledge—Negative and Positive Thought—Relativity”, in Hamilton, Philadelphia, Pa.: J[oshua] B[allinger] Lippincott and Co.; Edinburgh: W[illia]m Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, page 210