prat(t) (but not Siouan)

[Mary Marino]

'Prattle'  is a diminutive of 'prate' -  the latter meaning to talk
officiously or pompously, the former meaning to talk idly or foolishly - to
gab, or to talk like a child.  As applied to children is it not
pejorative.  This is discussed in the OED.

Mary



At 09:39 AM 8/6/2004, you wrote:
> >
> >  obviously cognate with l. suffragium n. 'Abstimmung, Beifall'
> > (vote, applause/acclamation) i.e. 'zustimmender Lärm'
> > (assenting/approving clamour).
>
>         Not at all obvious to me.  Germanic /p/ should correspond to Latin
>/b/, not /f/ (slippery, lubricus), and where's the Latin equivalent of the
>/t/??  I know my Indo-European is rusty, but this doesn't seem at all
>right.
>
>         I've been wondering whether "prattle" is a pejorative diminutive
>of this word.  There aren't very many of those in English.
>
> >
>David S. Rood
>Dept. of Linguistics
>Univ. of Colorado
>295 UCB
>Boulder, CO 80309-0295
>USA
>rood at colorado.edu