confabulate (2009-05-19)

Part of Speech: verb

Pronunciation: [kên-‘fæb-yu-leyt]

Definition: To chat, converse; (psychology) to fill lapses of memory with fabrications that one believes are facts.

Usage: The real problem with the clipping, "confab," is that it is too abrupt, given the mellifluent roll of the original: "We had a wonderful evening of heady wines and even headier confabulation." With both "fable" and "fabulous" lurking beneath the surface of the word, it possesses an air of intrigue lacking in the prosaic alternative, "conversation." Now, the psychological usage offers new possibilities even for ordinary confabulation, "The old folks spent the evening confabulating their childhoods as though they remembered every detail."

Suggested Usage: The process is "confabulation," the person confabulating is a confabulator and the adjective is "confabulatory." The word is often clipped to "confab" and used as a noun or verb, but such usage is slang and sounds very hokey.

Etymology: Latin confabulatio "conversation" based on con "with" + fabulare "to talk" from fabula "talk" whence English "fable" and "fabulous." "Fabula" comes from fari "to speak," distant cousin to Greek pheme "saying, speech" (as in euphemism "good saying") and phone "voice, sound" from phonein "to speak" which we find in "phonology," "phonetic," "telephone," "symphony," among others. In English it turns up as "ban," from Old English bannan "to summon, proclaim."