"Prophesize" Not in the Dictionaries

[Wilson Gray]

On Mar 26, 2005, at 7:44 PM, Benjamin Zimmer wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at RCI.RUTGERS.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: "Prophesize" Not in the Dictionaries
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> On Sat, 26 Mar 2005 19:28:11 -0500, Wilson Gray <wilson.gray at RCN.COM>
> wrote:
>
>> On Mar 26, 2005, at 3:37 PM, Douglas G. Wilson wrote:
>>
>>> Not the best analogies, I agree. Perhaps
>>
>>>  "conversate" for "converse" (v.)
>>
>> Isn't "conversate" slang? Since I was a teenager, this has been used
>> in
>> the sense of "sweet-talk" v.
>
> In hiphop usage, at least, it can range from "sweet-talk" to "have a
> serious conversation".  See the Original Hip-Hop Lyrics Archive:
>
> http://google.com/search?q=site:
> ohhla.com+conversate|conversatin|conversating|conversated
>
> I see there's a fair bit of conversatin' about "conversate" in the
> archive.
>
> --Ben Zimmer
>

Unfortunately, I've even suffered through the horror of hearing people
use "conversate" as though it was an ordinary word meaning merely
"carry on a conversation," in use since at least 1066. One unhip kid
even told me about keeping a dictionary with him at all times so that
he could conversate with anyone, even with someone who used big words
that he didn't already know.

You know, it's a real bring-down to talk with people who really believe
that so little effort is necessary to take life by the horns. You don't
know whether to laugh or cry.

-Wilson Gray