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converse

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converse1 to talk

Pronunciation

  • UK: /kənˈvɜːs/[1]
  • US: /kənˈvɝs/[1]

Etymology

The verb meaning to talk is inherited from Middle English conversen (“to live, dwell; to associate with”),[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French converser (“to live, dwell; to talk”),[5][6][2][7] and directly borrowed from Latin conversor (“to live, dwell, keep company with”).[6][4] The Latin verb is the middle voice of the rare conversō (“to turn to and fro”),[5][7] a frequentative of convertō (“to turn about”);[5][3][4] Etymonline and the American Heritage Dictionary analyse it as com- (“with, together”) and versor (“to occupy oneself”), from versō, frequentative of vertō (“to turn”),[6][2][8] from Proto-Indo-European *wer- (“to turn, bend”).[6][2] The OED explains that, as with other deponent verbs, Late Latin used the active form in place of the middle, which gave the Romance forms such as conversar and conversare.[5] The noun, conversation, is from English converse, the verb.[5][6][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

To move about, live or dwell in a place or among people: 1340, in Richard Rolle's Pricke of Conscience,[5] the mid-14th century in Etymonline.[6] Barnhart's first record is about 1380, in Chaucer's translation of Boethius.[4]

Semantic evolution

The Latin sense "to turn oneself about" had become "to pass one's life, dwell, keep company with", and English first took the word in that sense.[5] In the 16th century it came to mean associating familiarly with people (1598, in Shakespeare), having sexual relations, trading, and being occupied or familiar with a subject, all now obsolete.[5][9] From the 1590s it meant communicating with someone,[6] and in 1615 it took the modern sense of talking with someone;[5][4] Barnhart notes that French had this sense by 1537 and Italian before 1306.[4] The OED regards the shift from "live with" to "talk with" as recent in both French and English, and most complete in English.[5] Johnson's definition, "to convey the thoughts reciprocally in talk", is the one the OED quotes for the modern sense.[5][10] The noun followed the verb: it meant acquaintance or social intercourse from about 1500,[6][9] and conversation or familiar talk from the 1610s.[6][5] It is now literary or archaic.[9][2]

Timeline

  • 1340 – to live, dwell, move about (obsolete by 1727).[5]
  • c. 1500 – noun, acquaintance through frequent intercourse.[6][9]
  • c. 1540 – to have sexual intercourse (obsolete).[5]
  • 1598 – to associate familiarly, consort; to deal or trade (obsolete).[5]
  • 1590s – to communicate with someone.[6]
  • 1614 – noun, familiar talk, conversation.[5]
  • 1615 – to talk with someone.[5][4]
  • 1668 – noun, spiritual communion.[5]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To exchange thoughts and feelings in conversation; to talk: The two delegates conversed quietly in Spanish.[2][11][5]
  2. To commune spiritually or inwardly with.[11][5]
  3. (archaic) To associate or keep company with others.[2][11][5]
  4. (obsolete, 1340–1727) To live or dwell in a place or among people.[5][3][9]

Noun

  1. (literary or archaic) Conversation; talk: They held long converse by the fire.[2][11][9]
  2. (archaic) Social interaction or fellowship.[2][11]
  3. Spiritual or mental communion.[9][5]

Word family

  • converser
  • conversable

converse2 opposite

Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈkɒnvɜːs/[1]
  • US: /ˈkɑnvɝs/[1]

Etymology

The adjective and noun meaning opposite are borrowed from Latin conversus (“turned around, transformed”),[5][6][4][3][9][7] the past participle of convertō (“to turn about, transform”),[5][6][2][8] the source of convert.[4][7] The Latin verb is formed from com- (“with, together”) and vertō (“to turn”), from Proto-Indo-European *wer- (“to turn, bend”).[6] The OED notes that the noun converse occurs in French from the 13th century.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

In mathematics, of a ratio or proportion: 1570, in Henry Billingsley's translation of Euclid, where the noun, a proposition reversing another, also appears.[5][4] Etymonline dates the adjective to the 1560s and the noun to the 1550s.[6] Etymonline also notes Chaucer's in convers, apparently "on the other side".[6]

Semantic evolution

The word began as a term of mathematics, and later of logic, where from 1827 it named a converted proposition.[5][6] The general adjective sense, turned round or opposite in direction or action, is recorded from 1794,[5][6][3] and the noun meaning a thing or action that is the exact opposite of another from 1786.[5][6] The adverb conversely dates from the early 19th century.[9]

Timeline

  • 1550s – noun, in mathematics, according to Etymonline.[6]
  • 1570 – mathematics, converse ratio or proportion; noun, a converse proposition.[5][4]
  • 1786 – noun, the exact opposite of something.[5][6]
  • 1794 – adjective, opposite or contrary in direction or action.[5][6][3]
  • 1806 – noun, a statement made by transposing the terms of another.[5]
  • 1827 – logic, a converted proposition.[5]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Reversed in order or relation; opposite or contrary: the converse argument.[3][9][5]

Noun

  1. Something that is the reverse or exact opposite of another: Saving is easy when prices fall; the converse holds when they rise.[9][5][3]
  2. (mathematics) A theorem formed by interchanging the hypothesis and the conclusion of another.[3][5][9]
  3. (logic) A proposition obtained by conversion of another.[3][5][9]

Word family

  • conversely

Usage notes

The verb is stressed on the second syllable, the adjective and the noun meaning opposite on the first;[1] the noun meaning conversation was at first stressed like the verb.[9][5] An obsolete third converse, a convert and later a lay brother or sister of a convent, recorded from 1388 to 1691, came from French convers, from the same Latin participle.[5][9][3]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  7. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  11. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins