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colloquial

adj
/kəˈləʊ.kwɪəl/UK/kəˈloʊ.kwi.əl/US

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ḱe Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm Proto-Italic *kom Proto-Italic *kom- Latin con- Latin loquor Latin colloquor Proto-Indo-European *-yós Proto-Italic *-ios Old Latin -ios Latin -ius Latin -ium Latin colloquiumder. Middle English colloquies English colloquy Proto-Indo-European *h₂el-der.? Proto-Italic *-ālis Latin -ālisbor. Old French -albor. ▲ Latin -ālis Old French -elbor. ▲ Latin -ālisbor. Middle English -al English -al English colloquial 1751, from earlier term colloquy (“a conversation”), from Latin colloquium (“conference, conversation”), from con- (“together”) + loquor (“to speak”), + -al.

  1. derived from colloquium — “conference, conversation”

Definitions

  1. Characteristic of familiar conversation, of common parlance

    Characteristic of familiar conversation, of common parlance; informal.

    • You're using too many colloquial words in this cover letter: I suggest changing "I picked up loads of cool skills" to "I acquired many positive abilities"
    • The colloquial, and at times sarcastic, tone of her books makes her popular with teenagers.
    • If you know what it means to be a “fidlet” going for a “jolly” in your “doo”, then you are part of an exclusive club that speaks colloquial Antarctic English.

  2. Of or pertaining to a conversation

    Of or pertaining to a conversation; conversational or chatty.

  3. A colloquial word or phrase, colloquialism.

The neighborhood

Derived

colloquialese, colloquialisation, colloquialise, colloquialism, colloquialist, colloquiality, colloquialize, colloquially, colloquialness, pseudo-colloquial, pseudocolloquial, semicolloquial, uncolloquial

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at colloquial. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01colloquial02conversational03conversation04expression05colloquialism

A definitional loop anchored at colloquial. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

5 hops · closes at colloquial

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA