Huh, I guess it's a word afterall

23 comments

• jackslash

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  11 years ago

  My dictionary says "conversate" is non-standard. A better word is "converse."
  
  
• zipman68

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  11 years ago

  I like the Urban Dictionary definition of conversate:
  
  A word used by backwards, ignorant, illiterate inner city trash who mean to say ' converse'.
  
  Joking aside, languages evolve (unless you live in France...they try to stop that evolution) so it is possible that "to conversate" will become the preferred verb in the future. I recall an interview with an OED editor where he claimed the next edition would probably include it.
  
  That said, the past tense sounds very silly to me. On the other hand, we would ALL sound silly to a Middle English speaker. Hell, we'd probably sound silly to somebody from the 18th century...
• SlickSpic

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  11 years ago

  How come even my Mama, who's from central Mexico, knows that the correct form of the word is converse? And she never took ESL classes.
• Club_Goer_Seattle

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  11 years ago

  It's interesting that this topic should come up on a strip club website. The first time I ever heard the word used, it was in the company of a stripper. I thought she just stumbled, or couldn't pronounce the word, "converse." I didn't know it was a real word until I was able to get to a dictionary. I was surprised that it was. My thought was why use a three syllable word similar to the commonly used two-syllable word to express the same thought.
  
  But, language changes over time. (Mostly due to changes in technology) We may all be "conversating" in the future.
• Club_Goer_Seattle

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  11 years ago

  Slick, That's because your mama is a good listener.
• zipman68

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  11 years ago

  To be fair Slick, I suspect your mama actually felt she should learn proper English so she could sound intelligent. Doses of us dat wir birthed here in da united stateses we one ditch da English class e'ry dam daye cause we don alreedy speke da english. Why we need learn dat?
• zipman68

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  11 years ago

  Oops...spelling:
  
  Y wee neede lurn dat?
  
  There, fixed it!
• SlickSpic

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  11 years ago

  @Zip-You got me dying.
• ATACdawg

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  11 years ago

  When I managed a section in an engineering office I was on a personal crusade to end the use of "utilize" or "utilization". One more example of learned speak (pronounced learned).
• farmerart

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  11 years ago

  Uh, no, motorhead. It is not a word in the English language.
  
  It may be acceptable in that doggerel dialect spoken in USA.
• Alucard

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  11 years ago

  I wouldn't accept Mr. Greenberg as a source of the acceptability of words in the English language. Try looking it up in multiple dictionaries. If it is there in multiple OFFICIAL dictionaries [And not just in slang oriented dictionaries] - use it. I will not be using it.
• Estafador

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  11 years ago

  Sounds fine to me. I use it sparingly
• Hard4Dancers

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  11 years ago

  IMO it's a cromulent word.
• SlickSpic

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  11 years ago

  There's only one acceptable dictionary and that's Webster's. I loved that little brother. His step dad was George Popadopolis, aka Alex Karras.
• jabthehut

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  11 years ago

  Never have used the word except when making fun of someone who used it "conversating."
• motorhead

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  11 years ago

  "IMO it's a cromulent word"
  
  H4D: Very good!
• Dolfan

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  11 years ago

  I suppose it's the new ain't. I'll buy that its a word, but I still generally consider anyone who uses it to be ignorant. Maybe I'm just a judgmental prick, c'est la vie.
  
• magicrat

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  11 years ago

  Didn't George W. Bush use it? Not being judgmental but....
• SlickSpic

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  11 years ago

  Sounds like strategery to me.
• gawker

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  11 years ago

  Zipman - no one mentioned or picked up on your reference to the Oxford English Dictionary (THE ultimate word on the English language). I was an undergrad English major back when the world was flat. My roommate took it upon himself to steal the OED from the college library, one volume at a time. We would conversation about the legality and morality of stealing every word in the language.
  About 20 years ago I had an aunt pass away and in going through her detritus I found a 2 volume OED which became mine. It makes a wonderful doorstop, has print so small it comes with its own magnifying glass, and is outdated as the language evolves.
• gawker

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  11 years ago

  Damned Spellcheck: I meant "we would conversate". Which I suspect is past pluperfect tense.
• skibum609

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  11 years ago

  Conversate is now officially a word in some dictionaries. The urban dictionary used to have this definition: Conversate -- what a moron says when the mean converse. I have never heard the word used by anyone that I deem smart enough to do anything except to have sex for pay.
• kingcripple

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  11 years ago

  Urban Dictionary also used the word "ironical" so... i don't know