conversar

Forms

conversar (first-person singular present converso, first-person singular preterite conversei, past participle conversado)^[1] The 14th-century texts write cõuersar and cōverssar, and those of the 15th conversar, conuersar and comverssar.^[2][3] Feijó in 1734 still sets conversar against the spelling converssar.^[4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin conversor (“to associate with, live among”), a learned word.^[2][1][5] Houaiss takes it from the deponent verb, “to meet habitually in one place, frequent, live with”, while Nascentes, Aurélio, the DLP and the Porto Editora dictionary start from an active *conversō that replaced it.^{[2][5][6][7][8]} Medieval Latin had both forms, in the sense “to live in a certain way”, and in monastic texts “to take the religious life”.^[9][10]

The same Latin verb is Spanish conversar, Italian conversare and French converser.^[11] The deponent is formed con- (“with”) and versor (“to dwell, be busy”).^[1]

Nascentes explains the sense: people who live together exchange words, hence “to talk”.^[5][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss and Cunha date the verb to the 14th century, spelt cõuersar and cōverssar.^[2][3] Cunha glosses it “to speak, discourse, talk”.^[2][3] The older sense still led the dictionaries of the 18th century: Bluteau puts first “to deal with someone regularly and familiarly” and only second “to talk with someone”.^[13]

Semantic evolution

Pereira (1697) translates the verb by Latin conversor and colloquor, the two senses side by side.^[14] Morais in 1813 still gives “to deal with in friendship”, “to have improper dealings with”, “to frequent” (conversei Universidades florentissimas) and “to live” (Deus conversou entre os homens), with “to talk with someone” as the intransitive use.^[15] Bluteau also notes conversar com a bocca, of food whose taste comes back, as garlic does.^[13] Vieira in 1871 marks “to live, dwell” as old, and the sense “to talk” has prevailed since.^[16]

From “to talk with” came “to court”, recorded as popular by Figueiredo and as regional in Portugal by the DLP and the dialect surveys.^[17][7][18] In Brazil the verb also means to win someone over by talk, to seduce, and to sound out someone's views.^[2][19] A survey of Longroiva (Mêda) records the sense “to sit badly on the stomach”, of food.^[18] Cunha dates the noun conversa, a deverbal, to 1813.^[3]

Timeline

• 1300s – first records, spelt cõuersar and cōverssar.^[2][3]
• 1400s – conversar, conuersar and comverssar.^[2]
• 1602 – earliest form in the Post Scriptum collection of private letters, conversei.^[20]
• 1697 – Pereira glosses it with Latin conversor and colloquor.^[14]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau gives “to deal familiarly with” first and “to talk with” second.^[13]
• 1813 – Morais lists the senses “to frequent”, “to live” and “to talk”; first record of the noun conversa.^[15][3]
• 1871–1874 – Vieira marks “to live, dwell” as old.^[16]
• 1899 – Figueiredo records the popular sense “to court”.^[17]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive, with com) To talk, to chat with someone: Conversámos com os vizinhos até tarde.^[2][1][19]
2. (with sobre or de, or transitive) To talk about, discuss a subject: Conversaram sobre a eleição a noite inteira.^[2][6][19]
3. (regional, popular) To court, to go out with: Antes de casar ainda conversaram dois anos.^[2][7][18]
4. (Brazil, informal) To win someone over by talking, to sweet-talk, often to obtain something improper; to seduce.^[2][19]
5. (Brazil) To sound out someone's thoughts or intentions.^[2][7]
6. (Brazil, euphemistic, chiefly with ir) To discipline a child, especially by spanking.^[1]
7. (dated) To deal familiarly with someone.^[21][22]

Word family

• conversa
• conversação
• conversador

Usage notes

Conversar com o travesseiro “to talk with the pillow” means to sleep on a decision.^[19][8]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. conversar
3. ^ a b c d e f Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. conversar
4. ^ Feijó, João de Morais Madureira (1734), Orthographia, ou Arte de escrever, e pronunciar com acerto a lingua portugueza, Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. conversar
5. ^ a b c Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. conversar
6. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. conversar
7. ^ a b c d Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. conversar
8. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 2437
9. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. conversari
10. ^ du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre, p. s.v. conversare
11. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2197
12. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 134
13. ^ a b c Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. conversar
14. ^ a b Pereira, Bento (1697), Thesouro da lingoa portuguesa, in the 1697 edition of his Prosodia (1st ed. 1647; CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. conversar
15. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 466
16. ^ a b Vieira, Frei Domingos (1871–1874), Grande Diccionario Portuguez ou Thesouro da lingua portugueza, 5 vols., Porto: Ernesto Chardron e Bartholomeu H. de Moraes, p. 2, 495
17. ^ a b Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. 343
18. ^ a b c Instituto da Lingua Galega, Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (TLPGP), Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/tesouro, p. s.v. conversar
19. ^ a b c d e Aulete, Francisco Júlio Caldas, Dicionário contemporâneo da língua portuguesa (1st ed. 1881), online as Aulete Digital, Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, https://aulete.com.br, p. s.v. conversar
20. ^ CLUL (ed.) (2014), P.S. Post Scriptum: Arquivo Digital de Escrita Quotidiana em Portugal e Espanha na Época Moderna, Lisboa: Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, http://ps.clul.ul.pt, p. s.v. conversar
21. ^ Michaelis: Moderno Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, São Paulo: Melhoramentos (online as Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa, https://michaelis.uol.com.br), p. s.v. conversar
22. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. conversar