conversant means closely familiar; current; having frequent interaction. It carries an Arena rating of 1449, earned across 7 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, conversant ranks #3,274 of 17,126 for Most Elegant Words, #4,494 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #6,061 of 17,151 for The Improbable, #7,175 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books.
conversant is pronounced /kənˈvɜːsənt/.
Why “conversant” is a great word
Familiar and knowledgeable through study or experience, forming a practical acquaintance with a subject. From Old French conversant ('familiar'), present participle of converser ('to associate with'), from Latin conversari ('to keep company with, live with'), frequentative of convertere ('to turn around'), first attested in English in the late 14th century. Unlike 'proficient,' which implies adept execution, or 'acquainted,' which suggests a passing recognition, to be conversant is to possess the confident fluency of one who has lived beside a subject. It is the scholar who has spent decades in the archives of a single poet, the diplomat who understands the unspoken protocols of a foreign court, or the surgeon who knows the history of her specialty—a knowledge measured in the quiet confidence of well-thumbed pages and the precise weight of silences.
Etymology
From Old French conversant, present participle of converser.
adj
- Closely familiar; current; having frequent interaction.
- Familiar or acquainted by use or study; well-informed; versed.e.g.“She is equally conversant with Shakespeare and the laws of physics.”
- Concerned; occupied.e.g.“If any think education, because it is conversant about children, to be but a private and domestick duty, he has been ignorantly bred himself.” — 1651, Henry Wotton, A Philosophical Survey of Education:
noun
- One who converses with another.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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