Word of the Day

: April 23, 2010

collogue

verb kuh-LOHG

What It Means

1 : intrigue, conspire

2 : to talk privately : confer

collogue in Context

"If there was noise, as there often was even at dawn -- a huddle of men colloguing, a woman deliriously chanting the Mysteries -- his arrival would cause much of it to die." (Joseph O'Connor, Star of the Sea)

Did You Know?

"Collogue" has been with us since the 17th century, but beyond that little is known about its origin. In Samuel Johnson's 1755 dictionary, he defined "collogue" as "to wheedle, to flatter; to please with kind words." The "intrigue or conspire" meaning of "collogue" was also common in Johnson's day, but Johnson missed it; his oversight suggests that sense of the word was probably part of a dialect unfamiliar to him. The earliest known use of the "confer" sense of the word is found in an 1811 letter by Sir Walter Scott: "We shall meet and collogue upon it."