conversazione

English

Etymology

From Italian conversazione (“conversation”). Doublet of conversation.

Noun

conversazione (plural conversaziones or conversazioni)

1. A formal gathering where something related to the arts or academia is discussed.
   • 1828, JT Smith, Nollekens and His Times, Century Hutchinson, published 1986, page 164:

     [H]e was frequently present at the breakfast-table and conversazioni of Sir Joseph Banks, and instructed several persons of eminence in the classics.

   • 1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC:

     "I'm too detached to talk scandal, and yet at scientific conversaziones I have heard something of Challenger, for he is one of those men whom nobody can ignore."

   • 1922, W[illiam] B[utler] Yeats, chapter II, in The Trembling of the Veil, London: Privately printed for subscribers only by T[homas] Werner Laurie, Ltd., →OCLC, book IV (The Tragic Generation), page 168:

     Willie Redmond told of finding him [Oscar Wilde], to his astonishment, at the conversazione of some theatrical society, standing amid an infuriated crowd, mocking with more than all his old satirical wit the actors and their country.

   • 1983, Bernard S. Cohn, “Representing Authority in Victorian India”, in Eric J. Hobsbawm, editor, The Invention of Tradition:

     The one significant exception that was allowed was if an Indian habitually wore European clothes in public, then he would be allowed to wear shoes in the presence of his English masters on such occasions of western-style rituals such as the governor general's levee, a drawing room, conversazione or a ball.

   • 1997, Catherine N. Parke, “Johnson and the arts of conversation”, in Greg Clingham, editor, The Cambridge Companion to Samuel Johnson, Cambridge University Press, page 26:

     He was a guest particularly sought after for conversation-assemblies, evening conversation parties, or conversaziones, which flourished in London from the 1750s into the 1780s, and which Johnson attended during the last fifteen years of his life.

2. (by extension) A community social gathering.
   • 1942, Emily Carr, “Visiting Matrons”, in The Book of Small, Toronto, Ont.: Oxford University Press, →OCLC:

     Another form of young Victoria entertainment was the church conversazione. The Bishop opened, shut and blessed the affair but the congregation did the talking. Conversaziones were held in the church schoolroom which the ladies cut into little cubicles with benches—three sitting sides and one open. The benches were just close enough for one lady's lips to reach across confidentially to the opposite lady's ear. There was music for people who were not chatty and when everything had been done and encored tea was served.

See also

• at home (noun; historical)
• social (noun)

Italian

Etymology

From Latin conversātiōnem.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kon.ver.satˈt͡sjo.ne/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -one
• Hyphenation: con‧ver‧sa‧zió‧ne

Noun

conversazione f (plural conversazioni)

1. conversation, talk, interview

   Synonyms: colloquio, (informal) chiaccherata

Related terms

• conversare
• conversatore
• conversazionale

Descendants

• → English: conversazione

Further reading

• conversazione in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

Anagrams

• conservazione