I was at the bar yesterday afternoon and overheard the bartender and some of the regulars talking about the word "conversate". Actually they were arguing, not talking, about whether it was really a word. I wanted to interrupt and yell out "Yes huh!! It IS a word!" But I didn't. And I'm glad. Because now I am having second thoughts. I googled (is that a real word?) it and came across various sites that did or did not recognize it.

Dictionary.com states:

conversate

- 1 dictionary result

Main Entry:	conversate
Part of Speech:	v
Definition:	to socialize and chat; to converse with another
Etymology:	back-formation from conversation
Usage:	slang

Merriam-Webster.com states:

conversate

One entry found.

• Main Entry: con·ver·sate
• Pronunciation: \ˈkän-vər-ˌsāt\
• Function: intransitive verb
• Inflected Form(s): con·ver·sat·ed; con·ver·sat·ing
• Etymology: back-formation from conversation
• Date: 1973

Then I read a blog (is that a real word??) where the author vehemently denies that "conversate" is a word. She swears she is some grammar nazi and apparently goes around correcting people of their grammatical mistakes. Wow...winner. Anyhow, I read through all the comments and they also go back and forth on whether it's an acceptable word. Confusing.

So I asked Amy because I believe anything my friends tell me. She said she thought it was. Then I asked Leslie who said she believed it was as well but then looked in a dictionary and couldn't find it (though the version was from 2002). Then Joe pipes in that it's not and the correct wording is "converse". Rockett tells me to type it into Word and see what happens. I got the red squigglies under it. So then I typed in "googled" and "blog" and got the same frustrating wavy lines. (I just typed in "squigglies" in Word and got more squigglies...that's a fun word..if it's even a word.) Rockett then says that in his opinion, if people use it, it makes it a word. Which I liked. But then he said "holla" and "shiznit" were words...

So I've been dwelling on this since 8:00 this morning. I know, sad. But Leslie just told me her whole office is arguing about it right now, half for and half against so that makes me feel a little bit better. I'm not sure this will ever be solved and it might just have to remain one of life's greatest mysteries.