prattle · noun — silly, childish talk; babble. It carries an Arena rating of 1692, earned across 8 head-to-head judged battles.
Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, prattle ranks #1,786 of 17,132 for Most Elegant Words, #2,058 of 17,147 for Most Ingenious Words, #2,445 of 17,141 for Most Vivid Words, #2,598 of 17,143 for Most Malleable Words.
prattle is pronounced /ˈpɹætəl/.
Why “prattle” is a great word
Trivial, incessant, and empty talk. From the early modern English verb 'prate' (to talk foolishly or at length) and the frequentative suffix '-le', indicating repetitive action. Unlike 'orate', which drapes itself in formal dignity, or 'pontificate', which delivers pronouncements with pompous weight, prattle is speech stripped of all consequence and architecture. It is the ceaseless burble of a brook over smooth stones, the nervous filling of silence on a disastrous first date, or the way a child narrates their stuffed animals' dinner plans in the hush of a church pew—the sound of language untethered from the need to mean anything at all, running on habit alone.
❧ Essay by Lexicurio’s AI · definition, etymology & citations from published sources
Etymology
From prate + -le (early modern English frequentative suffix). Compare Dutch pruttelen and Dutch preutelen (“to mutter”).
noun
- Silly, childish talk; babble.e.g.“Mere prattle without practice is all his soldiership.” — c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iagg
verb
- To speak incessantly and in an inconsequential or childish manner; to babble.e.g.“And as E. Rushmore Coglan prattled of this little planet I thought with glee of a great almost-cosmopolite who wrote for the whole world and dedicated himself to Bombay.” — 1906, O. Henry, A Cosmopolite in a Café:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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