small talk

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

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Noun

small talk (uncountable)

1. (idiomatic) Idle conversation, typically on innocuous or unimportant subjects, usually engaged in at social gatherings out of politeness.
   • 1814 May 9, [Jane Austen], chapter VII, in Mansfield Park: […], volume I, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, 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, smalltalk

Synonyms

• (idle conversation): chit-chat, pleasantries, foretalk; see also Thesaurus:chatter (meaningless types)

Derived terms

• Smalltalk
• 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, bavardage (fr) m
• Galician: parola (gl) f, leria (gl) f
• German: Alltagsgespräch (de) n, Plauderei (de) f, Smalltalk (de) m or n, Plaudern n, belangloses Gespräch n, belanglose Unterhaltung f
• Greenlandic: please add this translation if you can
• Hebrew: סמול טוק m (smól tok)
• Hungarian: terefere (hu), társalgás (hu)
• Icelandic: rabb, mas
• Irish: cabaireacht f, mionchomhrá m
• Italian: chiacchiera (it) f
• Japanese: 雑談 (ja) (ざつだん, zatsudan), 世間話 (ja) (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 (pt) m
• Russian: лёгкая бесе́да f (ljóxkaja beséda), све́тский разгово́р m (svétskij razgovór)
• Spanish: charla (es) f, palique m, cháchara (es) f, teque m, charloteo (es) 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