prate

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English

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Etymology

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From Middle English praten; related to Dutch praten (to talk, chat), Low German praten, Danish prate, Swedish prata (to talk, prate), Faroese práta (to talk, gossip), Icelandic prata; all ultimately from Proto-Germanic *prattuz (idle or boastful talk, deceit), from Proto-Indo-European *bred- (to wander, rove). Cognate with Polish bredzić (to rave, jabber), Latvian bradāt (to talk nonsense).

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /pɹeɪt/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Rhymes: -eɪt

Noun

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prate (countable and uncountable, plural prates)

  1. Talk to little purpose; trifling talk; unmeaningful loquacity.
    Synonyms: waffle, babble

Derived terms

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Translations

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Verb

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prate (third-person singular simple present prates, present participle prating, simple past and past participle prated)

  1. (transitive, intransitive) To talk much and to little purpose; to be loquacious; to speak foolishly.
    Synonyms: blabber; see also Thesaurus:prattle, Thesaurus:chatter
    • c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies [] (First Folio), London: [] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i], page 136, column 1:
      Thou ſowre and firme-ſet Earth / Heare not my ſteps, which they may walke, for feare / Thy very ſtones prate of my where-about, / And take the preſent horror from the time, / Which now ſutes with it.
    • 1697, Virgil, “Pastorl 3”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. [], London: [] Jacob Tonson, [], →OCLC:
      What nonsense would the fool, thy master, prate, / When thou, his knave, canst talk at such a rate!
    • 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, [], →OCLC, Canto XXXVII, page 57:
      Urania speaks with darken’d brow:
      ⁠‘Thou pratest here where thou art least;
      ⁠This faith has many a purer priest,
      And many an abler voice than thou: []
    • 1976 June 7, Nik Cohn, “Inside the Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night”, in New York Magazine[1]:
      They are not so chic, these kids. They don’t haunt press receptions or opening nights; they don’t pose as street punks in the style of Bruce Springsteen, or prate of rock & Rimbaud.
    • 1999 February 19, Stephen Holden, “'Office Space': One Big Happy Family? No, Not at This Company”, in New York Times[2]:
      Puffed up with fake jocularity, Bill epitomizes the smiley, buck-passing, back-stabbing, passive-aggressive office dictator who fears and despises his underlings while prating nauseatingly about everybody being one big happy family.

Derived terms

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Translations

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References

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  • prate, in Compact Oxford English Dictionary.
  • prate, in The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language.

Anagrams

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Dutch

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Pronunciation

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Verb

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prate

  1. (dated or formal) singular present subjunctive of praten

Anagrams

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Norwegian Bokmål

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Etymology

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From Middle Low German praten, compare Swedish prata and Faroese práta.

Pronunciation

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Verb

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prate (imperative prat, present tense prater, passive prates, simple past and past participle prata or pratet, present participle pratende)

  1. to chat (om / about)

Derived terms

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References

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Serbo-Croatian

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Verb

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prate (Cyrillic spelling прате)

  1. third-person plural present of pratiti

West Frisian

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Etymology

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(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

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Verb

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prate

  1. to talk

Inflection

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Weak class 1
infinitive prate
3rd singular past prate
past participle praat, praten
infinitive prate
long infinitive praten
gerund praten n
auxiliary hawwe
indicative present tense past tense
1st singular praat prate
2nd singular praatst pratest
3rd singular praat prate
plural prate praten
imperative praat
participles pratend praat, praten

Further reading

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  • prate”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011