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more about conversation
conversation |
4 definitions found From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: Conversation \Con`ver*sa"tion\, n. [OE. conversacio (in senses 1 & 2), OF conversacion, F. conversation, fr L. conversatio frequent abode in a place intercourse, LL also manner of life.] 1. General course of conduct; behavior. [Archaic] Let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel. --Philip. i. 27. 2. Familiar intercourse; intimate fellowship or association; close acquaintance. ``Conversation with the best company.'' --Dryden. I set down out of long experience in business and much conversation in books, what I thought pertinent to this business. --Bacon. 3. Commerce; intercourse; traffic. [Obs.] All traffic and mutual conversation. --Hakluyt. 4. Colloquial discourse; oral interchange of sentiments and observations; informal dialogue. The influence exercised by his [Johnson's] conversation was altogether without a parallel. --Macaulay. 5. Sexual intercourse; as criminal conversation. Syn: Intercourse; communion; commerce; familiarity; discourse; dialogue; colloquy; talk; chat. Usage: {Conversation}, {Talk}. There is a looser sense of these words in which they are synonymous; there is a stricter sense in which they differ. Talk is usually broken, familiar, and versatile. Conversation is more continuous and sustained, and turns ordinarily upon topics or higher interest. Children talk to their parents or to their companions; men converse together in mixed assemblies. Dr Johnson once remarked, of an evening spent in society, that there had been a great deal of talk, but no conversation. From WordNet r 1.6 [wn]: conversation n : speech used for informal exchange of views From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [easton]: Conversation generally the goings out and in of social intercourse (Eph. 2:3; 4:22; R.V., "manner of life"); one's deportment or course of life. This word is never used in Scripture in the sense of verbal communication from one to another (Ps. 50:23; Heb. 13:5). In Phil. 1:27 and 3:20, a different Greek word is used It there means one's relations to a community as a citizen, i.e., citizenship. From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993) [devils]: CONVERSATION, n. A fair to the display of the minor mental commodities, each exhibitor being too intent upon the arrangement of his own wares to observe those of his neighbor.
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