What’s the intended conversate meaning when people use it? Is conversate even a real word? It actually is, and it means the same that converse does: to have a conversation. Keep reading to learn more about this word’s origins and usage.
Related:
- Imperative Meaning: What Is It?
- Indubitable Definition: What Is It?
- Albeit Meaning: What Is It and How to Use?
What Is Conversate?
Conversate is a nonstandard intransitive verb meaning to talk or to have a conversation. Contrary to many claims, it’s a real word that you can find in many respected dictionaries such as Merriam-Webster.
No one knows exactly when the word came about, but it’s been around for over 200 years. The earliest example in print that researchers have found was in 1811 in the United States.
Language experts believe the word started as a way to mimic regional dialects. However, the word also has a history of being used to satirize the way many African-Americans speak. Several times, it’s been in the lyrics of hip-hop and rap songs.
Examples:
- Let’s conversate over the rite of passage today.
- Students in the back of the room sometimes conversate during the teacher’s formal writing lesson, even though it’s an important subject.
- We should conversate about your personal information and personal account.
- Let’s conversate for bonding.
- I can’t conversate with you right now, but let me call you later.
- They’ll conversate about the proposal and get back to us about moving ahead.
- It’s hard to conversate with you with all this background noise.
When and How to Use Conversate?
Since conversate is a nonstandard word (informal), it’s best to use it in casual conversations, whether online or in real life.
Another thing to know is that quite a lot of people really hate the word conversate because it is a back-formation (a word that is created by removing the suffix or prefix of an existing word. In the case of conversate, it doesn’t have the suffix -ion from conversation). That doesn’t mean you can’t use it, but it may receive a negative reaction.
Converse vs. Conversate: Which One Should You Use?
Conversate (as having a conversation) is the same as the verb application of converse. Just remember the considerations we brought up in the previous section.
Converse can also be a noun or adjective. However, you cannot use conversate in those ways. Let’s look at the other definitions to understand why.
- Converse as noun: Something that is the reverse or inverse of another. For instance, “Your position has some valid points in support of it. However, the converse of it can also be true.”
- Converse as an adjective: having characteristics or qualities that are the opposite or reverse of something else. “To prepare for the debate, take the converse view of the one you hold. Study its supporting points so that you can effectively make a contrary argument.”
As you can see, the one meaning of conversate has nothing to do with the definitions above. If you used conversate in place of converse in the examples, you’d be doing more than possibly annoying someone. (Remember that tip about how a lot of people strongly dislike the word.) You’d also be creating an impression that you don’t know what you’re talking about!
Fun Fact: According to Google Trends, converse is more commonly used than conversate.
Final Thoughts
The only conversate meaning is to have a conversation— it’s the same as converse as a verb. It’s also a real word that you can find in dictionaries. Just remember that it’s informal and disliked by many.
