prate

English

Etymology

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 *brodno- (“to wander, rove”). Cognate with Polish bredzić (“to rave, jabber”), Latvian bradāt (“to talk nonsense”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pɹeɪt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪt

Noun

prate (countable and uncountable, plural prates)

1. Talk to little purpose; trifling talk; unmeaningful loquacity.

   Synonyms: waffle, babble

Derived terms

Derived terms

• prater
• pratingly
• prattle
• prattler

Translations

talk to little purpose

• Bulgarian: бърборене (bg) n (bǎrborene), брътвеж (bg) m (brǎtvež)
• Finnish: pälättää, hölpöttää (fi)
• German: Geschwätz (de) n
• Maori: kotete
• Polish: bajdurzyć (pl) impf
• Russian: болтовня́ (ru) f (boltovnjá), пустосло́вие (ru) n (pustoslóvije), трёп (ru) m (trjop)
• Turkish: gevezelik (tr)

Verb

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

• prate-roast
• prattle

Translations

to talk much, to chatter

• Bulgarian: бърборя (bg) (bǎrborja)
• Dutch: babbelen (nl)
• French: bavarder (fr)
• German: plaudern (de), schwatzen (de), schwätzen (de), faseln (de) (colloquial), schwafeln (de) (colloquial), labern (de) (colloquial)
• Maori: kotete
• Russian: болта́ть (ru) (boltátʹ)
• Sanskrit: लपति (lapati)
• Serbo-Croatian: brbljati (sh), naklapati (sh), lupetati (sh)
• Turkish: boş konuşmak, gevezelik etmek (tr)

References

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

Anagrams

• Peart, Petra, apert, apter, parte, pater, peart, petar, petra, preta, reapt, repat, retap, taper, trape, treap

Dutch

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Verb

prate

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

Anagrams

• pater

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /prɑːtɛ/

Verb

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

• pratsom

References

• “prate” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Serbo-Croatian

Verb

prate (Cyrillic spelling прате)

1. third-person plural present of pratiti

West Frisian

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpraːtə/

Verb

prate

1. to talk

Inflection

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

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