confabulate

[kuh n-fab-yuh-leyt]

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verb (used without object), con·fab·u·lat·ed, con·fab·u·lat·ing.

to converse informally; chat.

Psychiatry. to engage in confabulation.

Origin of confabulate

1605–15; < Latin confābulātus (past participle of confābulārī to talk together), equivalent to con- con- + fābul(a) conversation (see fable) + -ātus -ate¹

Related formscon·fab·u·la·tor, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for confabulator

chatterbox, speaker, talker, chatterer

British Dictionary definitions for confabulator

confabulate

verb (intr)

to talk together; converse; chat

psychiatry to replace the gaps left by a disorder of the memory with imaginary remembered experiences consistently believed to be trueSee also paramnesia

Derived Formsconfabulation, nounconfabulator, nounconfabulatory, adjective

Word Origin for confabulate

C17: from Latin confābulārī, from fābulārī to talk, from fābula a story; see fable

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for confabulator

confabulate

1610s, from confabulatus, past participle of Latin confabulari "to converse together," from com- "together" (see com-) + fabulari "to talk, chat," from fabula "a tale" (see fable). Psychiatric sense is from 1924.