Is "con" not a word? "To <b>con</b> someone" "A <b>con</b> artist",(reply>), Logo Ah, understood. Thanks,(reply>), This con is different from the con in conceive tho.<br><br>Con as a word used to be a shorthand for "confidence", like "con artist" meaning "confidence artist", someone who would play around with your confidence to them, and trick you into believing them.<br><br>Con- as a prefix mostly means "with", "together", while "ceive" means "to get", "to receive", so "conceive" means "to get together", to have the same idea as someone else, to form the same idea in your brain.<br><br>Similarly, con- in confidence means "with". To "confide" means to "trust with" someone, to trust someone.