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)
- Talk to little purpose; trifling talk; unmeaningful loquacity.
- Synonyms: waffle, babble
Derived terms
Derived terms
- prater
- pratingly
- prattle
- prattler
Translations
talk to little purpose
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Verb
prate (third-person singular simple present prates, present participle prating, simple past and past participle prated)
- (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 606515358, [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 403869432:
- What nonsense would the fool, thy master, prate, / When thou, his knave, canst talk at such a rate!
- 1976 June 7, Nik Cohn, “Inside the Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night”, in New York Magazine:
- 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:
- 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.
Translations
to talk much, to chatter
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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
- (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)
- to chat (om / about)
Derived terms
- pratsom
References
- “prate” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
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
- 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