Word of the Day

: July 11, 2020

confabulate

verb kun-FAB-yuh-layt

What It Means

1 : to talk informally : chat

2 : to hold a discussion : confer

3 : to fill in gaps in memory by fabrication

confabulate in Context

Before accepting my offer to purchase their handmade quilt, Polly and Linda took a moment to confabulate.

"The stories all share a common situation—the two couples in each story get together, get drunk, become hungry and confabulate—though the sharp divergence in the specifics of their conversations would leave readers with plenty to say." — Nicole Lamy, The New York Times, 30 Oct. 2018

Did You Know?

Confabulate is a fabulous word for making fantastic fabrications. Given the similarities in spelling and sound, you might guess that confabulate and fabulous come from the same root, and they do—the Latin fābula, which refers to a conversation or a story. Another fābula descendant that continues to tell tales in English is fable. All three words have long histories in English: fable first appears in writing in the 14th century, and fabulous follows in the 15th. Confabulate is a relative newcomer, appearing at the beginning of the 1600s.