prattle
English Edit
Etymology Edit
From prate + -le (early modern English frequentative suffix). Compare Dutch pruttelen and Dutch preutelen (“to mutter”).
Pronunciation Edit
Verb Edit
prattle (third-person singular simple present prattles, present participle prattling, simple past and past participle prattled)
- (transitive, intransitive) To speak incessantly and in an inconsequential or childish manner; to babble.
- Synonyms: see Thesaurus:prattle
- 1906, O. Henry, A Cosmopolite in a Café:
- And as E. Rushmore Coglan prattled of this little planet I thought with glee of a great almost-cosmopolite who wrote for the whole world and dedicated himself to Bombay.
- 1952, Daphne Du Maurier, “Monte Verità”, in The Apple Tree:
- I looked across at Anna, and I noticed that her eyes had grown strangely blank, without expression. I felt instinctively that the subject brought up by Victor was one she would not have chosen. Victor, insensitive to this, went prattling on.
Derived terms Edit
Translations Edit
to talk incessantly; to babble
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Noun Edit
prattle (uncountable)
- Silly, childish talk; babble.
- Synonyms: see Thesaurus:nonsense, Thesaurus:chatter
- c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], line 27:
- Mere prattle without practice is all his soldiership.
Derived terms Edit
Translations Edit
babble
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References Edit
- prattle, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition (2000)
- Douglas Harper (2001–2023), “prattle”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.