different between tattle vs prate

English

Etymology

From Middle Dutch tatelen, tateren (“to babble, chatter”), originally imitative. The word is cognate with Low German tateln, täteln (“to cackle, gabble”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?tæt(?)l/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?tætl?/, /-?l?/
• Hyphenation: tat?tle

Verb

tattle (third-person singular simple present tattles, present participle tattling, simple past and past participle tattled)

1. (intransitive) To chatter; to gossip.
3. (intransitive, Canada, US, derogatory) Often said of children: to report incriminating information about another person, or a person's wrongdoing; to tell on somebody. [from late 15th c.]
4. (intransitive, obsolete) To speak like a baby or young child; to babble, to prattle; to speak haltingly; to stutter.

Synonyms

• (to chatter): see Thesaurus:prattle
• (to report incriminating information or wrongdoing): see Thesaurus:rat out

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

tattle (countable and uncountable, plural tattles)

1. (countable) A tattletale.
2. (countable, Canada, US, derogatory) Often said of children: a piece of incriminating information or an account of wrongdoing that is said about another person.
3. (uncountable) Idle talk; gossip; (countable) an instance of such talk or gossip.

Synonyms

• (tattletale): telltale tit; see Thesaurus:informant or Thesaurus:gossiper
• (idle talk): see Thesaurus:tattle or Thesaurus:chatter

Translations

See also

• snitches get stitches
• twattle

References

Further reading

• gossip on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

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 *brodno- (“to wander, rove”). Cognate with Polish bredzi? (“to rave, jabber”), Latvian brad?t (“to talk nonsense”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /p?e?t/
• Rhymes: -e?t

Noun

prate (countable and uncountable, plural prates)

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

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

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

1. (transitive, intransitive) To talk much and to little purpose; to be loquacious; to speak foolishly.

   Synonyms: blabber; see also Thesaurus:prattle, Thesaurus:chatter

   • What nonsense would the fool, thy master, prate, / When thou, his knave, canst talk at such a rate!

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

Verb

prate

1. (archaic) singular present subjunctive of praten

Anagrams

• pater

Norwegian Bokmål

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pr??t?/

Verb

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

1. to chat (om / about)

Derived terms

• pratsom

References

• “prate” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

West Frisian

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?pra?t?/

Verb

prate

1. to talk

Inflection

Further reading

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