Other forms: conversations
A conversation is two or more people speaking together. Have a conversation, a long conversation, make conversation.
It implies exchange — both sides talk — which is what separates it from a lecture. Make conversation means to talk in order to fill a silence, and it is faintly effortful. A conversation piece is an object that starts one. In recent usage, the conversation means public discussion of a subject: start a conversation about it, which some people find useful and others find evasive. Note conversational, converse.
1nounconversationTwo or more people speaking together.
“I had a long conversation with my neighbour over the fence.”
2nounpublicPublic discussion of a subject.
“The documentary started a national conversation about mental health.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
conversation is an exchange of talk.
Also accepted in games: talk, chat
Latin conversatio meant keeping company with, from conversari, to live among — com plus versare, to turn about. The sense of talking is a late narrowing of simply being together.
Latin
conversātiōnem
Old French
conversacion
Middle English
conversacioun
English, today
conversation
Built from
From Middle English conversacioun, from Old French conversacion and its etymon, Latin conversātiōnem, accusative singular of conversātiō (“conversation”), from conversor (“abide, keep company with”). Displaced native Old English wordlaþu. a doublet of conversazione. Morphologically converse + ation.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA