/pɹeɪt/
OriginFrom Middle English praten; either inherited from Old English prætt or borrowed via Middle Dutch or Middle Low German praten (from Old Saxon *pratt), all from Proto-West Germanic *prattu, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *prattuz (“idle or boastful talk, deceit”), from Proto-Indo-European *bred- (“to wander, rove”).
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;; also cognate with Polish bredzić (“to rave, jabber”), Latvian bradāt (“to talk nonsense”).
- countable, uncountableTalk to little purpose; trifling talk; unmeaningful loquacity.
- ambitransitiveTo talk much and to little purpose; to be loquacious; to speak foolishly.
“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.”
“What nonsense would the fool, thy master, prate, / When thou, his knave, canst talk at such a rate!”
“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: […]’”
Formsprates(plural) · prates(present, singular, third-person) · prating(participle, present) · prated(participle, past) · prated(past)