Meanings
smalltalk1
- alternativeuncountableAlternative form of small talk.
It’s a bit difficult making smalltalk with a teacher, especially when they have to crane their neck to look up at you.
1996, Siobhán Parkinson, Sisters … No Way! (Cindy’s Diary), Dublin: The O’Brien Press, published 2005, →ISBN, pages 50–512 more examples
Hannah pictured Mark and herself sitting smiling over a stiff white tablecloth and single, interview-appropriate glasses of wine, making smalltalk and pretending everything was fine, that they were an ordinary happy couple, no stolen savings or hidden killer brothers to muddy the crystalline marital waters.
2014, Lucie Whitehouse, Before We Met, London: Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 150“Don,” she said, and pushed the hair back from her eyes with an irritated sweep of her hand, “if the health of my toads is your idea of smalltalk while we work then I think I’d rather you just kept quiet, if it’s all the same to you.”
2016, Peter McLean, Drake (A Burned Man Novel), Nottingham, Notts.: Angry Robot, →ISBN, page 102
Smalltalk2
- computer languagesAn object-oriented, dynamically-typed, reflective programming language.
Origin
From small talk; according to Alan Kay (one of its creators): The name actually appeared before the first Smalltalk design, which was done in 1971. I had mentioned to someone that the "prose" of then current programming languages was lower than a cocktail party conversation, and that great progress would have been made if we could even get to the level of making "smalltalk". It then occured^([sic]) to me that this word was also a great pun for a language aimed at the world of small children. As for hype: Another motive for "smalltalk" was the practice at the time of naming operating, and other, systems (which hardly did anything) after mighty indo-european gods, such as Thor, Zeus, Odin, etc. I figured that if Smalltalk ever did something neat, then people would be pleasantly surprised.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
smalltalk. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/smalltalk
“smalltalk.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/smalltalk. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “smalltalk,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/smalltalk.
Source: smalltalk on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.