[a. F. converser (12th c. in Littré) to pass one’s life, live, dwell in or with, in mod.Fr. also to exchange words with; = Pr. and Sp. conversar, It. and late L. conversare:—L. conversārī lit. to turn oneself about, to move to and fro, pass one’s life, dwell, abide, live somewhere, keep company with; middle voice of rare conversāre to turn to and fro, freq. of convertĕre to turn about. As with other deponent vbs. the active form was in late L. substituted for the middle, whence the Romanic forms. The transference of sense from ‘live with’ to ‘talk with’ is recent in Fr. and English, and most complete in the latter.]
† 1. intr. To move about, have one’s being, live, dwell in (on, upon) a place, among (with) people, etc. Obs.
1340. [see CONVERSANT a. 1].
c. 1374. Chaucer, Boeth., I. iii. 10. In whos houses I hadde conuersed and haunted fro my ȝouþe.
1483. Caxton, Cato, B v. Before them emonge the whyche we conuerse and go dayly. Ibid. (1483), Gold. Leg., 405/4. How many yere arte thou olde and where conuersest thou.
1638. Wilkins, New World, xiv. (1684), 139. Amongst the Variety of Birds, those which do most Converse upon the Earth, and are Swiftest in their running, as a Pheasant, Partridge, &c. together with all Domestical Fowl, are less able for Flight, than others.
1665–9. Boyle, Occas. Refl., IV. ix. (1675), 224. Impurities … contracted by conversing to and fro in a defiling World.
1691. Ray, Creation (1714), 26. Cetaceous Fishes which converse chiefly in the northern Sea. Ibid., II. (1704), 420. Birds have been taught to pronounce Words,—yet Quadrupeds never, though Dogs and Horses converse almost perpetually with Men.
1727. De Foe, Hist. Appar., Introd. (1840), 3. It converses here, is with us, and among us.
† 2. To associate familiarly, consort, keep company; to hold intercourse, be familiar with. Obs.
1588. Shaks., L. L. L., V. ii. 86. You shall … Visite the speechlesse sicke, and still conuerse With groaning wretches.
1622–62. Heylin, Cosmogr., IV. (1682), 134. So rude a Country, as hath not hitherto conversed with more civil Nations.
1667. Milton, P. L., II. 184. For ever, sunk Under yon boyling Ocean, wrapt in Chains; There to converse with everlasting groans.
1678. Evelyn, Mem. (1857), II. 131. Too blessed a creature to converse with mortals.
1780. Johnson, L. P., Congreve. Having long conversed familiarly with the great, he wished to be considered … as a man of fashion.
1819. G. S. Faber, Dispensations (1823), I. 322. The old pagans believed that a mighty god … openly conversed with mortals.
† b. To hold sexual intercourse. Obs.
1536. Bellenden, Cron. Scot. (1821), I. p. xix. This Albyne, with her fiftie sisteris … conversit with devillis in forme of men, and consavit childrin.
1611. Cotgr., s.v. Rifflarde.
1656. S. Winter, Serm., 45. They may lawfully converse together as man and wife.
1713. Addison, Guardian, No. 165, ¶ 7, 1734, II. 314. Being asked by some of her Sex, in how long a time a Woman might be allowed to pray to the Gods, after having conversed with a Man? If it were her Husband, says she, the next Day; if a Stranger, never.
1749. Fielding, Tom Jones, VI. x. That wench with whom I know he yet converses.
1760. C. Johnston, Chrysal (1822), III. 31. Liberty … to converse with as many females as he pleased.
† c. To have commercial intercourse, to deal, trade, traffic. Obs.
1598. Hakluyt, Voy. (1887), V. 38. According to their wonted maner, they may friendly conuerse and exercise mutual traffick together.
1613. Sherley, Trav. Persia, 9. The Turke hauing giuen certaine scales to trade in, out of which … it was vnlawfull for any to converse.
1690. Child, Disc. Trade (ed. 4), 141. This Law will not at all incommode Gentlemen as to what they buy in shops, neither those that converse in Fairs and Markets.
1725. De Foe, Voy. round World (1840), 183. These Indians had canoes … by which, perhaps, they conversed with the islands near them.
† 3. To be engaged in; to have to do with (a thing); to deal with, be familiar or conversant with. Obs. exc. as fig. of 4 or 5, in to converse with books.
1586. A. Day, Eng. Secretary, II. (1625), 90. You that converse in these and such like actions.
1602. Marston, Antonio’s Rev., IV. iii. O world, thou art too subtile For honest natures to converse withall.
1607–12. Bacon, Ess., Nat. Men (Arb.), 364. When they converse in those thinges they doe not affect.
1662. Stillingfl., Orig. Sacr., I. v. § 5. Since hath conversed more with the Orientall traditions.
1688. South, Serm. Prov. xii. 22. Wheresoever he trends, he sinks, and converses with a bottomless Pit.
1709. Strype, Ann. Ref., I. xxxi. 354. That ministers should converse in this catechism, and learn true divinity from it.
1719. J. Richardson, Sc. Connoisseur, 204. By conversing with the Works of the Best Masters.
1749. Fielding, Tom Jones, XIV. viii. He had indeed conversed so much with money.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., III. 409. A man … who has conversed, not only with books, but with lawyers and merchants … statesmen and princes.
† 4. To communicate or interchange ideas (with any one) by speech or writing or otherwise. Obs.
1590. Shaks., Com. Err., II. ii. 162. Did you conuerse sir with this gentlewoman?… I never spake with her in all my life.
1650. Sir E. Nicholas, in N. Papers (Camden), I. 177. [As] I have att noe tyme soe much ease and content as when I converse with you, I hope I shall gaine pardon for this tedious letter.
1712. Pope, Lett., 28 May. It is not only the disposition I always have of conversing with you, that makes me so speedily answer your obliging letter.
1727. De Foe, Syst. Magic, I. vi. 151. Like ships at sea, they must converse by signals.
1762–71. H. Walpole, Vertue’s Anecd. Paint. (1786), II. 137. He conversed little with the painters … except Velasquez, with whom he continued a correspondence of letters.
b. To hold inward communion, commune with.
1591. Shaks., 1 Hen. VI., II. i. 26. Well let them practise and conuerse with spirits.
a. 1652. J. Smith, Sel. Disc., IX. ii. (1821), 415. He knows how to converse with himself, and truly to love and value himself.
1686. Horneck, Crucif. Jesus, iv. 66. Before he eats, converses with himself, while he is eating converses with God, and after he hath eaten, converses with the holy angels.
1747. T. Warton, Pleas. Melancholy, 15.
| Ascends the rocky summit, where thou dwell’st | |
| Remote from man, conversing with the spheres! |
1864. Lowell, Fireside Trav., 233. So you … have time to converse with your sensations.
5. spec. ‘To convey the the thoughts reciprocally in talk’ (J.); to engage in conversation, to talk with (a person), on, upon (a subject), in (a language, voice). The ordinary current sense.
1615. J. Stephens, Satyr. Ess. (ed. 2), 249. If … you desire to converse with him, you must tarry till he be awake.
1653. Walton, Angler, i. 32. I have conversed with those which have conversed with him.
1727. De Foe, Syst. Magic, I. i. 6. Adam’s posterity learnt to speak immediately from him, and so to converse with one another.
1745. Wesley, Answ. Ch., 7. My Heart clave to him as soon as he spoke. And the more we convers’d, so much the more did I esteem … him.
1799. Southey, Lyric Poems, Old Man’s Comforts. You are cheerful, and love to converse upon death.
1825. Lytton, Falkland, 41. We had been conversing with Lady Margaret on indifferent subjects.
1841. Borrow, Zincali, II. xi. 136. Wishing to converse … in a language unknown to the Spaniards.
1853. C. Brontë, Villette, xxi. Talk for you is good discipline. You converse imperfectly.
6. trans. † a. To keep company with; b. To render familiar or well acquainted; c. To communicate with, talk with. Obs. d. To talk (any one) out of, etc.
1649. Jer. Taylor, Gt. Exemp., Exhort. § 9. Such a life without which human society cannot be conversed.
1665. J. Sergeant, Sure-footing, 84. Not conversing him daily or very often.
1683. D. A., Art Converse, Pref. Whether we Converse our Superiours, Inferiours, or Equals.
1704. Swift, Batt. Bks., Wks. 1768, I. 176. This Temple having been Educated and long Conversed among the Ancients.
1718. Wodrow, Corr. (1843), II. 354. After I have conversed himself, and read his theses.
1824. Miss Ferrier, Inher., lxvii. She called her daughter to her, and contrived to converse her out of the room.
