confabulate, v. intr.
(kənˈfæbjʊleɪt)
[f. ppl. stem of L. confābulārī, f. con- together + fābulārī to talk, chat, f. fābula a tale: see fable.]
1. To talk familiarly together, converse, chat.
| 1613 R. C. Table Alph. (ed. 3), Confabulate, to talke together. 1656 H. More Enthus. Tri. (1712) 32 This body and the Stars confabulating together, the Mind is informed of things to come. 1732 Hist. Litteraria III. 72 Moses and Elias were at the Transfiguration, and did confabulate with Jesus. 1785 Cowper Pairing Time 2, I shall not ask Jean Jacques Rousseau If birds confabulate or no. 1859 R. F. Burton Centr. Afr. in Jrnl. Geog. Soc. XXIX. 419 The women..often awake to confabulate even at midnight. 1873 Browning Red Cotton Night-Cap Country 248 They did not cluster on the tree-tops..caw and confabulate For nothing. |
2. Psychiatry. To fabricate imaginary experiences as compensation for loss of memory. Hence conˈfabulating ppl. a.
| 1924 A. A. Brill tr. Bleuler's Textbk. Psychiatry ii. 107 Many paretics..spontaneously confabulate in a very profuse manner. 1941 Brit. Jrnl. Psychol. Jan. 232 [The patient's] memory was grossly impaired and she confabulated freely. 1963 Hoenig & Hamilton tr. Jaspers's Gen. Psychopath. iv. xii. 592 The conspicuous ease and facility with which these patients confabulate in place of their real memories. 1965 Rosen & Gregory Abnormal Psychol. iii. 37/1 If a confabulating hospital patient is asked to recount the events of his day he may state with complete conviction that he has been in a distant city and describe his adventures there in detail. |