conversazione
Americannoun
-
conversaziones,
plural
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conversazioni
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of conversazione
First recorded in 1740–50; from Italian; literally, “conversation, meeting to hold a conversation”; see origin at conversation ( def. )
Explanation
A conversazione isn’t just a casual chat — it’s a lively, engaging, and intellectual conversation where people talk about art, literature, and culture. The word conversazione comes from the Italian word for "conversation" and originally referred to a social gathering centered around stimulating conversation. These events became popular in Europe during the 18th and 19th centuries as a way for intellectuals and artists to exchange ideas in an informal environment. Unlike casual small talk, a conversazione is about having meaningful discussions in a setting that encourages creativity and deep thinking.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Like many a tourist before & after, he found ample material for jokes in such things as French opera and royalty, nuns and pubs, Italian comedy and conversazione.
From Time Magazine Archive
He has always been a fine painter of sociability, and the traditional genre of the conversazione fits his photocollage methods like a glove.
From Time Magazine Archive
Of our sport, I only recollect the massacre of a dozen snakes, which were holding a kind of conversazione in the hollow of a rocky islet where we landed to dine.
From Sketches in Canada, and rambles among the red men by Mrs. (Anna) Jameson
The box of questions kept the debate on foot for a long time, then followed the conversazione.
From Withered Leaves. Vol. II. (of III) A Novel by Rudolf von Gottschall
A privy council was a conversazione of laughing bishops and droll chief-justices.
From Jack Hinton The Guardsman by Charles James Lever
It was while he was teaching English at the University of Chicago that he met "Harriet," who kept alive the torch of culture by all-night literary conversaziones around a lakeshore bonfire.
From Time Magazine Archive
She is one of those who stand foremost in collecting all extraordinary or curious people to her London conversaziones, which, like those of Mrs. Vesey, mix the rank and the literature, and exclude all beside....
From Life of Johnson, Volume 4 1780-1784 by James Boswell
Lady Somerset's monthly assemblies were not the most elegant and brilliant parties in town, but her weekly conversaziones surpassed everything of the kind in the kingdom.
From Thaddeus of Warsaw by Jane Porter
For the life that was dead it had a perfect passion, and it sometimes held conversaziones to gaze at it through microscopes.
From The Romance of Zion Chapel [3d ed.] by Richard Le Gallienne
He will get invitations to all sorts of dinners and conversaziones, but not enough income to pay his cab fare.
From Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley — Volume 1 by Thomas Henry Huxley
Her evening conversazioni were frequented by many of the more learned, as well as fashionable persons in the metropolis.
From The Modern Scottish Minstrel, Volume I. The Songs of Scotland of the past half century by Charles Rogers
At one time she invited Bronson Alcott, one of the leaders of a similar movement, to preside over some conversazioni in her parlours, where he could elucidate his favourite subject.
From Memories and Anecdotes by Kate Sanborn
The parlors, in charge of the officers of the association, are devoted to the special work of the year, pertaining to the centennial celebration and the political party conventions; also to calls, receptions, conversazioni, etc.
From History of Woman Suffrage, Volume III by Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Elsewhere, there are conversazioni around fires, with a woman for queen of the circle,—her Nubian face, gay head-dress, gilt necklace, and white teeth, all resplendent in the glowing light.
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 14, No. 86, December, 1864 by Various
You may absent yourself for weeks together from these conversazioni, and nobody will on your re-appearance enquire where you have been or what you have been doing.
From After Waterloo: Reminiscences of European Travel 1815-1819 by Major W. E Frye
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
