# 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 *bred- (“to wander, rove”). Cognate with Polish bredzić (“to rave, jabber”), Latvian bradāt (“to talk nonsense”).

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /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

* prater
* pratingly
* prattle
* prattler

#### Translations
### 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, [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], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, Canto XXXVII, 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: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.

#### Derived terms

* prate-roast
* prattle

#### Translations
### 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
* (dated or formal) singular present subjunctive of praten

### Anagrams

* pater

## Norwegian Bokmål
### Etymology

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

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /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.

## Serbo-Croatian
### Verb

prate (Cyrillic spelling прате)
* third-person plural present of pratiti

## West Frisian
### Etymology

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

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈpraːtə/

### Verb

prate
* to talk

#### Further reading

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