prate

§English

§Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -eɪt

§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”).

§Noun

prate (plural prates)

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

§Translations

talk to little purpose

• Finnish: pälättää, hölpöttää (fi)
• German: Geschwätz (de) n
• Russian: болтовня (ru) f (boltovnjá), пустословие (ru) n (pustoslóvije), трёп (ru) m (trjóp)

• Turkish: gevezelik (tr)

§Derived terms

• prater
• pratingly
• prattle
• prattler

§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 )

• Russian: болтать (ru) (boltatʹ)
• Serbo-Croatian: brbljati, naklapati, lupetati
• 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

• apert, apter, pater, petra, Petra, preta, repat, taper, trape

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§Dutch

§Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

§Verb

prate

1. (archaic) singular present subjunctive of praten

§Anagrams

• pater