prattle (English)
Where does "prattle" come from?
Prattle is an early modern English formation, built from the verb prate with the frequentative suffix -le[1]. Prate entered Middle English as 'praten', which was either borrowed from Middle Dutch[3] or inherited from Old English 'prætt'[2][4]. Both routes lead back to Proto-Germanic '*prattuz', meaning 'boastful talk; deceit, cunning, trick'[4][5]. Over time, that sense of boastful or deceitful talk softened into the idle chatter we now call prattle. Related Dutch forms such as 'pruttelen' and 'preutelen', meaning 'to mutter', show the same root family.
Open questions
- Whether prate was inherited from Old English or borrowed through Middle Dutch or Middle Low German is not settled by the available evidence. [2] [3] [4]
- The link to the Proto-Indo-European root '*bred-' meaning 'to wander' is tentative, and the source offers only a possible pre-Germanic form. [5]
Full etymology tree
- prattle (English), 'Silly, childish talk; babble.'
- affix prate (English), 'Talk to little purpose; trifling talk; unmeaningful loquacity.'
- inherited praten (Middle English), 'to chatter inconsequentially'
- borrowed praten (Middle Dutch)
- borrowed praten (Middle Low German)
- borrowed *pratt (Old Saxon)
- borrowed praten (Middle Low German)
- borrowed praten (Middle Dutch)
- inherited praten (Middle English), 'to chatter inconsequentially'
- suffix -le (Early Modern English)
- affix prate (English), 'Talk to little purpose; trifling talk; unmeaningful loquacity.'
Ancestors
- prate (English)
- le (English)
Cognates and doublets
- pruttelen (Dutch)
Descendants and derived words
- prattlebox (English)
- prattlement (English)
- prattlesome (English)
- prittle-prattle (English)
Sources
- prattle (English) - Wiktionary
- prate (English) - Wiktionary
- praten (Middle English) - Wiktionary
- prætt (Old English) - Wiktionary
- prattuz (Proto-Germanic) - Wiktionary
Updated October 2026
Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris