Except for strippers and 16 year old girls on Facebook, I've never seen the word "conversate" used in standard English.
But this morning, Mike Greenberg (of ESPN's 'Mike & Mike' morning show) used the word. Greenberg is a graduate of Northwestern's highly ranked school of Journalism and seems to be an all-around smart guy. If he recognized the word, maybe I should start using it also.
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...
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.
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.
Slick, That's because your mama is a good listener.
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?
Oops...spelling:
Y wee neede lurn dat?
There, fixed it!
@Zip-You got me dying.
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).
Uh, no, motorhead. It is not a word in the English language.
It may be acceptable in that doggerel dialect spoken in USA.
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.
Sounds fine to me. I use it sparingly
IMO it's a cromulent word.
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.
Never have used the word except when making fun of someone who used it "conversating."
"IMO it's a cromulent word"
H4D: Very good!
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.
Didn't George W. Bush use it? Not being judgmental but....
Sounds like strategery to me.
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.
Damned Spellcheck: I meant "we would conversate". Which I suspect is past pluperfect tense.
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.
Urban Dictionary also used the word "ironical" so... i don't know
My dictionary says "conversate" is non-standard. A better word is "converse."