English

Noun

conversazione ‎(plural conversaziones or conversazioni)

1. A formal gathering where something related to the arts is discussed.
   • 1845, J. T. Smith, A Book for A Rainy Day, cited in Peter Ackroyd, Blake: A Biography, New York: Ballantine Books, 1995, p. 85,

     At a lady's most agreeable conversaziones I first met the late William Blake, the artist, to whom she and Mr Flazman had been truly kind.

   • 1922, W. B. Yeats, The Trembling of the Veil, Book IV. The Tragic Generation, in The Collected Works of W. B. Yeats, Volume III, Autobiographies, edited by William H. O'Donnell and Douglas Archibald, New York: Scribner, 1999, p. 226,

     Willie Redmond told of finding [Oscar Wilde], to his astonishment, at the conversazione of some theatrical society, standing amid an infuriated crowd, mocking with more than all his old satirical wit the actors and their country.

   • 1983, Bernard S. Cohn, "Representing Authority in Victorian India", in The Invention of Tradition, edited by Eric J. Hobsbawm.

     The one significant exception that was allowed was if an Indian habitually wore European clothes in public, then he would be allowed to wear shoes in the presence of his English masters on such occasions of western-style rituals such as the governor general's levee, a drawing room, conversazione or a ball.

   • 1997, Catherine N. Parke, "Johnson and the arts of conversation," in Greg Clingham (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Samuel Johnson, Cambridge University Press, p. 26,

     He was a guest particularly sought after for conversation-assemblies, evening conversation parties, or conversaziones, which flourished in London from the 1750s into the 1780s, and which Johnson attended during the last fifteen years of his life.

2. (by extension) A community social gathering.
   • 1942, Emily Carr, The Book of Small, "Visiting Matrons,"

     Another form of young Victoria entertainment was the church conversazione. The Bishop opened, shut and blessed the affair but the congregation did the talking. Conversaziones were held in the church schoolroom which the ladies cut into little cubicles with benches—three sitting sides and one open. The benches were just close enough for one lady's lips to reach across confidentially to the opposite lady's ear. There was music for people who were not chatty and when everything had been done and encored tea was served.

Italian

Noun

conversazione f ‎(plural conversazioni)

1. conversation, talk, interview

Synonyms

• colloquio
• chiaccherata (informal)

Related terms

• conversare
• conversatore
• conversazionale

Anagrams

• conservazione