Chat

[chat] /tʃæt/

verb (used without object), chatted, chatting.
1.
to converse in a familiar or informal manner.
2.
Digital Technology. to participate with one or more people, through the Internet, in a real-time conversation, typically as a series of short text exchanges in a specific application, as instant messaging, or by using images, voice, video, or some combination of these: The kids were able to chat with their grandma online.
Join our online community to chat about TV shows.
noun
3.
informal conversation:
We had a pleasant chat.
4.
Digital Technology. a real-time conversation, as between two or more people or between a representative of a business and a customer, over the Internet or other network:
Join our free video chat.
See also , .
5.
any of several small Old World thrushes, especially of the genus Saxicola, having a cry.
6.
.
adjective
7.
Digital Technology. noting or relating to an online chat:
a chat session.
Verb phrases
8.
chat up, Chiefly British.

1.
(especially in Bordeaux wines) Château.
/tʃæt/
noun
1.
informal conversation or talk conducted in an easy familiar manner
2.
the exchange of messages in an internet or other network chatroom
3.
any Old World songbird of the subfamily Turdinae (thrushes, etc) having a harsh chattering cry See also stonechat, whinchat
4.
any of various North American warblers, such as Icteria virens (yellow-breasted chat)
5.
any of various Australian wrens (family Muscicapidae) of the genus Ephthianura and other genera
verb (intransitive) chats, chatting, chatted
6.
to talk in an easy familiar way
7.
to exchange messages in a chatroom
/tʃæt/
noun
1.
(archaic or dialect) a catkin, esp a willow catkin
v.

mid-15c., “talk idly, babble,” short for chatter (v.). Meaning “to converse familiarly” is from 1550s. Sense of “flirt with, ingratiate oneself with” (in later use often with up (adv.)) is from 1898. Related: Chatted; chatting.
n.

1520s, “chatter, frivolous talk;” see chat (v.). Meaning “familiar conversation” is from 1570s. Chat show, for what in U.S. is a talk show, attested from 1969. Chat room in the online sense is attested by 1994, from the days when AOL ruled the Web.

noun

The capability of exchanging personal messages on a computer network: As you play, you can exchange typedmessages—that’sa featurecalled ”chat” incomputer lingo—with other players (1980+ Computer)
chat, messaging
Any system that allows any number of logged-in users to have a typed, real-time, on-line conversation via a network.
The medium of chat is descended from talk, but the terms (and the media) have been distinct since at least the early 1990s. talk is prototypically for a small number of people, generally with no provision for channels. In chat systems, however, there are many channels in which any number of people can talk; and users may send private (one-to-one) messages.
Some early chat systems (in use 1998) include IRC, ICQ and Palace. More recent alternatives include MSN Messenger and Google Talk.
Chat systems have given rise to a distinctive style combining the immediacy of talking with all the precision (and verbosity) that written language entails. It is difficult to communicate inflection, though conventions have arisen to help with this.
The conventions of chat systems include special items of jargon, generally abbreviations meant to save typing, which are not used orally. E.g. BCNU, BBL, BTW, CUL, FWIW, FYA, FYI, IMHO, OT, OTT, TNX, WRT, WTF, WTH, , , BBL, HHOK, NHOH, ROTFL, AFK, b4, TTFN, TTYL, OIC, re.
Much of the chat style is identical to (and probably derived from) Morse code jargon used by ham-radio amateurs since the 1920s, and there is, not surprisingly, some overlap with TDD jargon. Most of the jargon was in use in talk systems. Many of these expressions are also common in Usenet news and electronic mail and some have seeped into popular culture, as with emoticons.
The MUD community uses a mixture of emoticons, a few of the more natural of the old-style talk mode abbreviations, and some of the “social” list above. In general, though, MUDders express a preference for typing things out in full rather than using abbreviations; this may be due to the relative youth of the MUD cultures, which tend to include many touch typists. Abbreviations specific to MUDs include: FOAD, ppl (people), THX (thanks), UOK? (are you OK?).
Some BIFFisms (notably the variant spelling “d00d”) and aspects of ASCIIbonics appear to be passing into wider use among some subgroups of MUDders and are already pandemic on chat systems in general.
See also hakspek.
Suck article “Screaming in a Vacuum” (http://suck.com/daily/96/10/23/).
(2006-05-31)