colloquy, n.
(ˈkɒləkwɪ)
[ad. L. colloqui-um speaking together, conversation, conference, f. col- together + -loquium speaking, f. loqui to speak.]
1. A talking together; a conversation, dialogue. Also, a written dialogue, as Erasmus's Colloquies.
| 1581 Mulcaster Positions xli. (1887) 238 All conferences, all both priuate and publike colloquies. 1660 R. Blome Fanat. Hist. ii. 16 Frantick men that boasted of visions, and colloquies with God. 1755 Jortin Erasm. I. 296 The Colloquies of Erasmus..well deserve to be read. 1829 Southey (title), Sir Thomas More: or Colloquies on the Progress and Prospects of Society. 1850 Mrs. Stowe Uncle Tom's C. xxii. 222 The colloquy between Tom and Eva was interrupted by a hasty call from Miss Ophelia. 1885 Life Sir R. Christison I. 168 Our host in the course of our colloquy, said, etc. |
b. (without pl.) Converse, dialogue.
| 1817 Byron Manfred iii. i, Shunning..All further colloquy. a 1839 Praed Poems (1864) II. 36 When they chance to make In colloquy some small mistake. 1850 Grote Greece ii. lxx. VI. 267 To invite the natives to amicable colloquy. |
† 2. A meeting for conference.
| 1563–87 Foxe A. & M. (1596) 263/2 Cluniake, where was..appointed a secret meeting or colloquie betweene the Pope and Lewis the French King. 1661 Bramhall Just Vind. ii. 22 Debated between the Catholick Bishops, and the schismatical Donatists at the Colloquie of Carthage. 1679 Trial of White & Other Jesuits 12 They adjourned into several Clubs or Colloquies, or what you please to call them. |
3. Eccl. In the Reformed Genevan or Presbyterian Churches, a church court composed of the pastors and representative elders of the churches of a district, with judicial and legislative functions over these churches; = classis, presbytery.
| a 1672 P. Nye Oath Suprem. (1683) 54 There are Synods, Consistories, Colloquies, and other Ecclesiastical Courts. 1692 J. Quick Synodicon xxxvii, In every Province the Churches shall be divided according to their numbers and conveniency of neighbour places into Colloquies or Classes. 1846 J. S. Burn For. Prot. Refugees 45 Charges against the moral character of this minister..were entertained by the colloquy, which pronounced sentence in 1647. 1862 Latham in Ansted Channel Isl. iii. xv. (ed. 2) 367 The Curate of St. John's parish died, and the colloquy appointed to the vacant benefice. 1889 A. H. Drysdale Hist. Presbyt. Eng. i. 173 The Church Courts were the ‘Consistory’ and the ‘Colloquy’ or Presbytery meeting quarterly, and the Synod every two years in Jersey and Guernsey alternately. The Colloquies and Consistories were, as at Geneva, strict courts of morals, fitted in to the general civil jurisdiction. |
Hence ˈcolloquy v. intr., to hold colloquy.
| 1868 Hawthorne Amer. Note-bks. (1879) II. 142 They colloquied at much length. |