prate

Meanings

Noun

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

Verb

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

Origin

• 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").