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Chat vs Banter - What's the difference?

chat | banter |

Banter is a synonym of chat.



As verbs the difference between chat and banter

is that chat is to be engaged in informal conversation while banter is to engage in banter or playful conversation.

As nouns the difference between chat and banter

is that chat is {{cx|uncountable|lang=en}} Informal conversation while banter is good-humoured, playful, typically spontaneous conversation.

chat

English

(wikipedia chat)

Etymology 1

Abbreviation of chatter . The bird sense refers to the sound of its call.

Verb

(chatt)
  • To be engaged in informal conversation.
  • She chatted with her friend in the cafe.
    I like to chat over a coffee with a friend.
  • To talk more than a few words.
  • I met my old friend in the street, so we chatted for a while.
  • To talk of; to discuss.
  • They chatted politics for a while.
  • To exchange text or voice messages in real time through a computer network, as if having a face-to-face conversation.
  • Do you want to chat online later?

    Noun

  • Informal conversation.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham)
  • , title=(The China Governess) , chapter=Foreword citation , passage=Reg liked a chat about old times and we used to go and have a chinwag in the pub.}}
  • A conversation to stop an argument or settle situations.
  • An exchange of text or voice messages in real time through a computer network, resembling a face-to-face conversation.
  • Any of various small Old World passerine birds in the subfamily Saxicolini that feed on insects.
  • Derived terms
    * backchat * chatroom * chat up * stonechat * whinchat

    Etymology 2

    Compare chit'' "small piece of paper", and ''chad''.William Safire, ''The Right Word in the Right Place at the Right Time , p. 43, Simon and Schuster, 2007 ISBN 1416587403.

    Noun

  • A small potato, such as is given to swine.
  • References

    Etymology 3

    Origin unknown.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Mining waste from lead and zinc mines.
  • * 2006 , Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day , Vintage 2007, p. 441:
  • Frank had been looking at calcite crystals for a while now [...] among the chats or zinc tailings of the Lake County mines, down here in the silver lodes of the Vita Madre and so forth.

    Etymology 4

    From .

    Alternative forms

    * chatt

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • .
  • * 1977 , Mary Emily Pearce, Apple Tree Lean Down , page 520:
  • 'Do officers have chats , then, the same as us?'
    'Not the same, no. The chats they got is bigger and better, with pips on their shoulders and Sam Browne belts.'
  • * 2007 , How Can I Sleep when the Seagull Calls? (ISBN 978-1-4357-1811-1), page 18:
  • May a thousand chats from Belgium crawl under their fingers as they write.
  • * 2013 , Graham Seal, The Soldiers' Press: Trench Journals in the First World War (ISBN 1137303263), page 149:
  • Trench foot'' was a nasty and potentially fatal foot disease commonly caused by these conditions, in which ''chats or body lice were the bane of all.

    Etymology 5

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Anagrams

    * (l), (l), (l), (l) ----

    banter

    English

    Noun

    (-)
  • Good-humoured, playful, typically spontaneous conversation.
  • It seemed like I'd have to listen to her playful banter for hours.

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To engage in banter or playful conversation.
  • To play or do something amusing.
  • To tease (someone) mildly.
  • * Washington Irving
  • Hag-ridden by my own fancy all night, and then bantered on my haggard looks the next day.
  • * Charlotte Brontë
  • Mr. Sweeting was bantered about his stature—he was a little man, a mere boy in height and breadth compared with the athletic Malone
  • To joke about; to ridicule (a trait, habit, etc.).
  • * Chatham
  • If they banter' your regularity, order, and love of study, ' banter in return their neglect of them.
  • To delude or trick; to play a prank upon.
  • * Daniel De Foe
  • We diverted ourselves with bantering several poor scholars with hopes of being at least his lordship's chaplain.
  • (transitive, US, Southern and Western, colloquial) To challenge to a match.
  • Synonyms

    * (tease) kid, wind up

    Derived terms

    * (l)

    References

    Anagrams

    *