prattle
EnglishEdit
EtymologyEdit
From prate + -le (early modern English frequentative suffix). Compare Dutch pruttelen and Dutch preutelen (“to mutter”).
PronunciationEdit
VerbEdit
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 termsEdit
TranslationsEdit
to talk incessantly; to babble
|
|
NounEdit
prattle (uncountable)
- Silly, childish talk; babble.
- Synonyms: see Thesaurus:nonsense, Thesaurus:chatter
- c. 1603–1604, 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 606515358, [Act I, scene i], line 27:
- Mere prattle without practice is all his soldiership.
TranslationsEdit
babble
ReferencesEdit
- prattle, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition (2000)
- Douglas Harper (2001–2022), “prattle”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.