prate

From Middle English praten; related to Dutch praten (“to talk, chat”), Low German praten, dated German pfrassen, 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”).

• IPA^(key): /pɹeɪt/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪt

prate (countable and uncountable, plural prates)

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

   Synonyms: waffle, babble

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

1. (ambitransitive) 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], “Canto XXXVII”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, 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.

• prate-roast
• prattle

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

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

• Audio:

  (file)

prate

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

• pater

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

• IPA^(key): /prɑːtɛ/

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

1. to chat (om / about)

• pratsom

• “prate” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

prate (Cyrillic spelling прате)

1. third-person plural present of pratiti

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

• IPA^(key): /ˈpraːtə/

prate

1. to talk
   • 1991, Froukje Annema, Mei in fleurich sin‎^[3], Friese Pers Boekerij, →ISBN, page 81:

     Sy praten drok oer de fakânsjes.

     They were talking excitedly about the holidays.

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