Christopher, since you addressed your post to yourself, it is not clear to me whether you expect a response. Here goes, anyway.
Speaking for myself, I was not aware that "dialogue" had ever been used in English as a verb. But I knew that it is used in French that way ("dialoguer"), so I figured that English did so as well, by analogy. And sure enough, all the standard dictionaries (Webster's and the American Heritage Dictionary, in addition to the OED) give two meanings for "dialogue" as a verb: 1) to converse (int.); and 2)to express in dialogue (trans.).
Unfortunately, only one of the dictionaries I have (Webster's Unabridged) gives an example of its actual use as a verb. The quotation is from Shakespeare, and is meant to illustrate the second meaning:
....And dialogued for him what he would say.
If you were to say that today, of course, it would strike most people as "quaint," if not outright "wrong." And what really puzzles me is that none of the dictionaries have an (obs.) or an (arch.) before their definitions of "dialogue" as a verb. The fact is, as you yourself point out, it does not appear to be common usage today.
You indicate that the OED has citations going up to the 1890's. (Even that is a century ago.) Perhaps you can share some of them, so that we can see how the verb "dialogue" was actually used in specific sentences. (And do they employ the conjunction "with" -- as in "to dialogue with him"?)
The problem, IMO, is that the use of "dialogue" as a verb is not only obsolete (or at least fast becoming so), but it also sounds pretentious (to my ears, at least).
Why should that be so? Who knows? <g>
Languages are living organisms, as I never tire of repeating, and like all living organisms, they behave in unpredictable -- or perhaps I should say para-logical -- ways.
Here's a theory (offered in jest, of course). Lately, the language has been forced to absorb too many nouns transformed into verbs. This has been like eating too much candy. The language is now suffering from a figurative belly-ache, and has begun throwing up all these transformed nouns -- the good old ones along with the bad new ones.
How's that? :-)
Joan
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