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Usenet Posted 23 years ago
Usage

ON TOPIC: "Conversate"

What's the deal with the word? IS it a word? Rappers sure seem to think so. What's the difference between "converse" and "conversate"? And how come some nouns that end in "tion" are changed to the "conversate" form as verbs and others aren't? For example, "information" doesn't become "informate". (Are there any cases where it would or could?) "Conformation" becomes "conform", not "conformate". "Summation" becomes just "sum", but I think I've also heard "summate". But, "formation" CAN become "formate" (or just "form"), right? "Formulation" DOES become "formulate"; NEVER just "formule". "Inflation" can also only be "inflate"; same with "deflation". "Defecation" can only become "defecate" but never "defece". What's the deal? Are there any set rules?
  

Top answer

[nq:1]What's the deal with the word? IS it a word? Rappers sure seem to think so.

— Usenet

  • [nq:1]What's the deal with the word?
  • IS it a word?
  • Rappers sure seem to think so.
  • What's the difference between ...
  • "inflate"; same with "deflation".
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61 Answers
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[nq:1]What's the deal with the word? IS it a word? Rappers sure seem to think so. What's the difference between ... "inflate"; same with "deflation". "Defecation" can only become "defecate" but never "defece". What's the deal? Are there any set rules?[/nq]
While we're at it, how about comment and commentate?

An let's not Chuck Berry's coinage (as far as I know it was his): "motorvate"
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[nq:1]What's the deal with the word? IS it a word? Rappers sure seem to think so. What's the difference between "converse" and "conversate"? . . . What's the deal? Are there any set rules?[/nq]
New words are invented by language users
who can be anyone. "Set rules" were invented
by 19th and 20th century scholars, based on
their judgment about how actual words had
emerged. This
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[nq:2]What's the deal with the word? IS it a word? Rappers sure seem to think so. What's the difference between "converse" and "conversate"?[/nq]It's not sufficient to ask "IS it a word?" That can mean all sorts of things. For example, an "orthographic word" is a series of characters which stand between two spaces: This was what "word" means in telegraphy, and obviously, "conversate" would be a wo
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[nq:1]What's the deal with the word? IS it a word? Rappers sure seem to think so. What's the difference between ... "inflate"; same with "deflation". "Defecation" can only become "defecate" but never "defece". What's the deal? Are there any set rules?[/nq]
Some people are confounded by the jargon they grow accustomed to using. I have heard policemen (white, just so one doesn't think it is stri
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[nq:2]What's the deal with the word? IS it a word? ... never "defece". What's the deal? Are there any set rules?[/nq]
[nq:1]Some people are confounded by the jargon they grow accustomed to using. I have heard policemen (white, just so one ... is a made-up word like "conversate". No hope, though. My memory is, like a great Wisconsin product, full of holes.[/nq]
Question for Dena Jo:
You
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[nq:2]What's the deal with the word? IS it a word? ... never "defece". What's the deal? Are there any set rules?[/nq]
[nq:1]Some people are confounded by the jargon they grow accustomed to using.I have heard policemen (white, just so one doesn't ... it is a made-up word like "conversate". No hope, though.My memory is, like a great Wisconsin product, full of holes.[/nq]
I immediately though
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mUs1Ka filted:

Chuck Berry rather than Crosby, but I thought of "As I was a-motorvatin' over the hill"..r
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[nq:1]mUs1Ka filted:[/nq]
[nq:2]My I immediately thought of "Try a Little Tenderness" but that is 'anticipating'.[/nq]
[nq:1]Chuck Berry rather than Crosby, but I thought of "As I was a-motorvatin'over the hill"..r[/nq]
What do you mean 'rather than Crosby'? Bing recorded it in 1933. m.
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Maybe you are correct. Sometimes my word associations have echos in all those caverns.
So "anticipating" rhymes with "waiting"?
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mUs1Ka filted:

I mean my example was Berry rather than Crosby...Chuck, Alan Freed and Russ Frato didn't get around to writing it until 1955..r
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