small talk

small talk

See also: smalltalk, Smalltalk, small-talk, and Small Talk

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

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Noun

small talk (uncountable)

1. (idiomatic) Idle conversation, typically on innocuous or unimportant subjects, usually engaged in at social gatherings out of politeness.
   • 1814 July, [Jane Austen], chapter VII, in Mansfield Park: […], volume I, London: […] T[homas] Egerton, […], OCLC 39810224, page 134:

     [T]o the credit of the lady it may be added, that […] without any of the arts of flattery or the gaieties of small talk, he began to be agreeable to her.

   • 1910, P. G. Wodehouse, Misunderstood:

     If he had a fault as a conversationalist, it was a certain tendency to monotony, a certain lack of sparkle and variety in his small-talk.

   • 2009 June 10, John Cloud, “Michael Jackson 1958–2009”, in Time:

     Yet for so public a figure, Jackson was socially awkward, inept at small talk and terrified when the distant audience became an adoring mob.

Alternative forms

• small-talk

Synonyms

• (idle conversation): pleasantries, foretalk
• See also Thesaurus:chatter

Derived terms

• small-talker

Descendants

• → Finnish: smalltalk
• → German: Smalltalk
• → Polish: small talk

Translations

idle conversation

Arabic: كَلَام خَفِيف‎ m (kalām ḵafīf), مُحَادَثَة خَفِيفَة‎ f (muḥādaṯa ḵafīfa) Catalan: xerrameca (ca) f, garleries f pl Chinese: Mandarin: 閑談／闲谈 (zh) (xiántán), 聊天 (zh) (liáotiān), 寒暄 (zh) (hánxuān) Czech: tlachání n, nezávazná konverzace f Dutch: praatje (nl) n, koetjes en kalfjes pl or n, lichte conversatie f Finnish: rupattelu (fi), jutustelu (fi), small talk (fi) French: papotage (fr) m Galician: parola (gl) f, leria (gl) f German: Alltagsgespräch (de) n, Plauderei (de) f, Smalltalk (de) m or n, Plaudern n Hebrew: סמול טוק‎ m (smól tok) Hungarian: terefere (hu), társalgás (hu) Icelandic: rabb, mas Irish: cabaireacht f, mionchomhrá m Japanese: 雑談 (ja) (ざつだん, zatsudan), 世間話 (せけんばなし, sekembanashi) Korean: 잡담 (ko) (japdam), 한담 (handam) Latin: sermunculus m Maori: tūtara Norwegian: Bokmål: småprat m or n Nynorsk: småprat m or n Polish: small talk (pl) m Portuguese: conversa fiada m Russian: лёгкая бесе́да f (ljóxkaja beséda), све́тский разгово́р m (svétskij razgovór) Spanish: charla (es) f, palique m Swedish: kallprat (sv) n, småprat (sv) n Welsh: mân siarad m

See also

• big talk
• happy talk

Further reading

• small talk on Wikipedia.Wikipedia