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

• Rhymes: -eɪt

Noun

prate (plural prates)

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

Derived terms

Derived terms

• prater
• pratingly

• prattle
• prattler

Translations

talk to little purpose

• Finnish: pälättää, hölpöttää (fi)
• German: Geschwätz (de) n
• Maori: kotete

• 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. To talk much and to little purpose; to chatter; to be loquacious; to speak foolishly; to babble.
   • Dryden

     What nonsense would the fool, thy master, prate, / When thou, his knave, canst talk at such a rate!

Synonyms

• (speak (about unimportant matters)): blabber, chatter, clack, gabble, gibber, maunder, palaver, piffle, prattle, twaddle

Translations

to talk much, to chatter

• Dutch: babbelen (nl)
• French: bavarder (fr)
• German: plaudern (de), schwatzen (de), schwätzen (de), faseln (de) (colloquial), schwafeln (de) (colloquial)
• Maori: kotete

• Russian: болта́ть (ru) (boltátʹ)
• Serbo-Croatian: brbljati (sh), naklapati (sh), lupetati (sh)
• Turkish: boş konuşmak, gevezelik etmek (tr)

References

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

Anagrams

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

---

Dutch

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Verb

prate

1. (archaic) singular present subjunctive of praten

Anagrams

• pater

---

Norwegian Bokmål

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.