causerie

n.

1. An informal discussion or chat, especially of an intellectual nature.
2. A short conversational piece of writing or criticism.

[French, from causer, to talk, from Latin causārī, to plead, discuss, from causa, case, cause.]

(ko-zuh-REE)

noun
1. Chat.
2. A piece of informal writing.

Etymology
From French, from causer (to chat), from Latin causari (to plead, discuss), from causa (case, cause). Other words derived from the same root are accuse, rush, and excuse

Usage
"One usually observes that during causeries between friends, relatives, colleagues and even his mother (mostly not Westerly or Englishly educated), words of English oftentimes creep into one's utterances so much so that it is now an accepted norm in our tradition that it has gained an appellate of ingausa (meaning an admixture of English and Hausa) in our expressions." — Suleiman Zailani; Africa.. And the Colour of English; The Guardian (Lagos, Nigeria); Sep 24, 2001.

"Dolphins do not appear to hold out much hope for human-beast causerie either, despite our romanticized view of them as floating hobbits. Mr. Bright does see a bright side to all this, however. If we could converse with animals, he points out, we would have a lot of explaining to do for the terrible way we treat them." — Jim Holt; Bookshelf: Adorable Pit Bulls, Chimps Who Won't Chat; The Wall Street Journal (New York); Dec 2, 1991.

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causerie, the French word for a chat, sometimes used to denote an informal literary essay or article, after the Causeries du lundi—the famous weekly articles by the French literary critic Sainte‐Beuve published in Parisian newspapers from 1849 to 1869.

[F.]  /koz ree/
informal talk or discussion, esp. on literary topics; also, a chatty article or paragraph

IN BRIEF: n. - Light informal conversation for social occasions.

Tutor's tip: This word was used in the 2006 Scripps National Spelling Bee finals.