different between language vs conversation

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: l?ng?gw?j, IPA^(key): /?læ??w?d??/
  • (General American, Canada) IPA^(key): (see /æ/ raising) [?le???w?d??]
• Hyphenation: lan?guage

Etymology 1

From Middle English langage, language, from Old French language, from Vulgar Latin *lingu?ticum, from Latin lingua (“tongue, speech, language”), from Old Latin dingua (“tongue”), from Proto-Indo-European *dn???wéh?s (“tongue, speech, language”). Displaced native Old English ?eþ?ode.

Noun

language (countable and uncountable, plural languages)

1. (countable) A body of words, and set of methods of combining them (called a grammar), understood by a community and used as a form of communication.
   • 1867, Report on the Systems of Deaf-Mute Instruction pursued in Europe, quoted in 1983 in History of the College for the Deaf, 1857-1907 ?ISBN, page 240:

     Hence the natural language of the mute is, in schools of this class, suppressed as soon and as far as possible, and its existence as a language, capable of being made the reliable and precise vehicle for the widest range of thought, is ignored.
2. (uncountable) The ability to communicate using words.

3. (uncountable) A sublanguage: the slang of a particular community or jargon of a particular specialist field.
   • 1991, Stephen Fry, The Liar, p. 35:

     And ‘blubbing’... Blubbing went out with ‘decent’ and ‘ripping’. Mind you, not a bad new language to start up. Nineteen-twenties schoolboy slang could be due for a revival.

4. (countable, uncountable, figuratively) The expression of thought (the communication of meaning) in a specified way; that which communicates something, as language does.
   • 2001, Eugene C. Kennedy, Sara C. Charles, On Becoming a Counselor ?ISBN:

     A tale about themselves [is] told by people with help from the universal languages of their eyes, their hands, and even their shirting feet.
5. (countable, uncountable) A body of sounds, signs and/or signals by which animals communicate, and by which plants are sometimes also thought to communicate.
   • 1983, The Listener, volume 110, page 14:

     A more likely hypothesis was that the attacked leaves were transmitting some airborne chemical signal to sound the alarm, rather like insects sending out warnings […] But this is the first time that a plant-to-plant language has been detected.

   • 2009, Animals in Translation, page 274:

     Prairie dogs use their language to refer to real dangers in the real world, so it definitely has meaning.

6. (computing, countable) A computer language; a machine language.
   • 2015, Kent D. Lee, Foundations of Programming Languages ?ISBN, page 94

     In fact pointers are called references in these languages to distinguish them from pointers in languages like C and C++.

7. (uncountable) Manner of expression.
   • 1782, William Cowper, Hope

     Their language simple, as their manners meek, […]

8. (uncountable) The particular words used in a speech or a passage of text.

9. (uncountable) Profanity.

Synonyms

• (form of communication): see Thesaurus:language
• (vocabulary of a particular field): see Thesaurus:jargon
• (computer language): computer language, programming language, machine language
• (particular words used): see Thesaurus:wording

Hypernyms

• medium

Hyponyms

• See Category:en:Languages

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Verb

language (third-person singular simple present languages, present participle languaging, simple past and past participle languaged)

1. (rare, now nonstandard or technical) To communicate by language; to express in language.

   • Others were languaged in such doubtful expressions that they have a double sense.

See also

• bilingual
• lexis
• linguistics
• multilingual
• term
• trilingual
• word

Etymology 2

Alteration of languet.

Noun

language (plural languages)

1. A languet, a flat plate in or below the flue pipe of an organ.

References

• language at OneLook Dictionary Search
• language in Keywords for Today: A 21st Century Vocabulary, edited by The Keywords Project, Colin MacCabe, Holly Yanacek, 2018.
• language in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

French

Noun

language m (plural languages)

1. Archaic spelling of langage.

Middle English

Noun

language (plural languages)

1. Alternative form of langage

Middle French

Alternative forms

• langage
• langaige
• languaige

Etymology

From Old French language.

Noun

language m (plural languages)

1. language (style of communicating)

Related terms

• langue

Descendants

• French: langage
  • Haitian Creole: langaj
    • ? English: langaj
  • Mauritian Creole: langaz

Old French

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Vulgar Latin *lingu?ticum, from Classical Latin lingua (“tongue, language”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /lan??ad???/

Noun

language f (oblique plural languages, nominative singular language, nominative plural languages)

1. language (style of communicating)

Related terms

• langue, lingue

Descendants

• ? Middle English: language
  • English: language
• Middle French: language
  • French: langage
    • Haitian Creole: langaj
      • ? English: langaj
    • Mauritian Creole: langaz
• ? Old Spanish: lenguage

English

Etymology

From Middle English conversacioun, from French conversation, from Latin convers?ti?nem, accusative singular of convers?ti? (“conversation”), from conversor (“abide, keep company with”).Morphologically converse +? -ation

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?k?n.v??se?.??n/, [?k???.v??se?.?n?]
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?k?n.v???se?.??n/, [?k???.v??se?.?n?]
• Rhymes: -e???n

Noun

conversation (countable and uncountable, plural conversations)

1. Expression and exchange of individual ideas through talking with other people; also, a set instance or occasion of such talking. [from 16th c.]

   Synonyms: banter, chat, chinwag, dialogue, discussion, interlocution, powwow, table talk

   • 1699, William Temple, Heads designed for an essay on conversations

     Study gives strength to the mind; conversation, grace: the first apt to give stiffness, the other suppleness: one gives substance and form to the statue, the other polishes it.
2. (fencing) The back-and-forth play of the blades in a bout.
3. (computing, networking) The protocol-based interaction between systems processing a transaction. [from 20th c.]
4. (obsolete) Interaction; commerce or intercourse with other people; dealing with others. [14th-18th c.]
5. (archaic) Behaviour, the way one conducts oneself; a person's way of life. [from 14th c.]
   • 1748, Samuel Richardson, Clarissa, Letter 27:

     I have desired him to inquire after Lovelace's life and conversation in town.

6. (obsolete) Sexual intercourse. [16th-19th c.]

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:copulation

   • 1723, Charles Walker, Memoirs of the Life of Sally Salisbury:

     Ariadne […] quitted her Lover Theseus, for the tumultuous Conversation of Bacchus.

   • 1749, Henry Fielding, Tom Jones, Folio Society 1973, p. 333:

     Our travellers had happened to take up their residence at a house of exceeding good repute, whither Irish ladies of strict virtue, and many northern lasses of the same predicament, were accustomed to resort in their way to Bath. The landlady therefore would by no means have admitted any conversation of a disreputable kind to pass under her roof. Indeed, so foul and contagious are all such proceedings, that they contaminate the very innocent scenes where they are committed, and give the name of a bad house, or of a house of ill repute, to all those where they are suffered to be carried on.

7. (obsolete) Engagement with a specific subject, idea, field of study etc. [16th–18th c.]

   Synonyms: understanding, familiarity

   • 1570, John Dee, in H. Billingsley (trans.) Euclid, Elements of Geometry, Preface:

     So grosse is our conuersation, and dull is our apprehension: while mortall Sense, in vs, ruleth the common wealth of our litle world.

Usage notes

• To make conversation means to start a conversation with someone with no other aim than to talk and break the silence.
• To have a conversation, and to hold a conversation, both mean to converse.
• See Appendix:Collocations of do, have, make, and take

Derived terms

• conversational
• conversation piece
• make conversation

Related terms

• converse
• conversant

Translations

Verb

conversation (third-person singular simple present conversations, present participle conversationing, simple past and past participle conversationed)

1. (nonstandard, transitive, intransitive) To engage in conversation (with).
   • 1983, James Frederick Mason, Hélène Joséphine Harvitt, The French review

     Gone now are the "high-minded" style, the "adapted from literature" feel, the voice-over narration, and the abstract conversationing about ideas, values...

Anagrams

• conservation, nanovortices

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin convers?ti? (“conversation”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k??.v??.sa.sj??/
• Homophone: conversations
• Hyphenation: con?ver?sa?tion

Noun

conversation f (plural conversations)

1. conversation

Synonyms

• bavardage
• causerie
• dialogue
• discussion

Hypernyms

• communication

Hyponyms

• aparté
• interview

Derived terms

• avoir de la conversation
• faire la conversation
• conversationnel

Further reading

• “conversation” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• conservation