different between tattle vs prattle

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 prate +? -le (“early modern English frequentative suffix”). Compare Dutch pruttelen and Dutch preutelen (“to mutter”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?p?æt?l/
• Rhymes: -æt?l

Verb

prattle (third-person singular simple present prattles, present participle prattling, simple past and past participle prattled)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To speak incessantly and in an inconsequential or childish manner; to babble.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:prattle

Derived terms

• prattler
• prattlingly

Translations

Noun

prattle (uncountable)

1. Silly, childish talk; babble.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:nonsense, Thesaurus:chatter

   • c. 1603, William Shakespeare, Othello, the Moor of Venice, Act I, scene I, line 27

     Mere prattle without practice is all his soldiership.

Translations

References

• prattle, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition (2000)
• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “prattle”, in Online Etymology Dictionary

Anagrams

• Platter, partlet, platter