colloquy

\KAH-luh-kwee\

noun

1 : conversation, dialogue

2 : a high-level serious discussion : conference

This is the second descendent of the Latin "loqui" M-W has thrown my way this year, the other being collogue (April 23), which means to conspire in private. To be clear, I didn't remember this; collogue appeared in the drop-down menu from the box in which I type the day's word. I'm not actually retaining any information here.

So, I'm thinking about what warrants a COLLOQUY, or a discussion one would refer to as "serious." Perhaps anything preceded by the phrase, "We need to talk." I hate saying those words far more than I hate hearing them. Saying them means I'm about to break someone's heart, ruin someone's day, or (and) embarrass myself in some inevitable way. Receiving such a preface I'm often kind of excited; it means something is about to change, I'm about to be challenged, or, at the least, things are going to get interesting.

But, who says this? Nobody. Nobody says, "Later on today I'm sitting down for a COLLOQUY with Fred to discuss the future of our marital status/this company/his drinking problem." The kind of people who use the word COLLOQUY are the kind of people who create things like The COLLOQUY Society, "the first high-IQ (their italics) society based entirely on the internet," currently accepting applicants of "superior intelligence." Judging by the looks of their website, there are no web designers intelligent enough to have a hand in the matter.

COLLOQUY is also the name of an application for iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch—a mobile chat program. Technically speaking the app is an Internet Relay Chat (IRC) client for mobile devices. I'm terrible with technology, so I don't understand much of this language, but I do understand the juxtaposition in the phrase "Mobile COLLOQUY." Something old, something new—like Napoleon Bonaparte at the Waterlube in San Dimas—always makes for good wit.