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blather. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
blather, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
blather in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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English
Etymology 1
From Middle English bletheren, bloderen, from Old Norse blaðra (“to speak inarticulately, talk nonsense”). Cognate with Scots blether, bladder, bledder (“to blather”), dialectal German bladdern (“to talk nonsense, blather”), Norwegian bladra (“to babble, speak imperfectly”), Icelandic blaðra (“to twaddle”).
- blether (Northern England, Scotland, Northern Ireland)
Pronunciation
Verb
blather (third-person singular simple present blathers, present participle blathering, simple past and past participle blathered)
- (intransitive, derogatory) To talk rapidly without making much sense.
1866, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter XI, in Felix Holt, the Radical , volume I, Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, page 249:“There you go blatherin’,” said Brindle, intending a mild rebuke.
1905 (date written), James Joyce, “Grace”, in Dubliners, London: Grant Richards, published June 1914, →OCLC, page 210:It was at the unveiling of Sir John Gray's statue. Edmund Dwyer Gray was speaking, blathering away, and here was this old fellow, crabbed-looking old chap, looking at him from under his bushy eyebrows.
2001, Richard Flanagan, “The Pot-Bellied Seahorse”, in Gould’s Book of Fish, New York, N.Y.: Grove Atlantic, published 2014, section 5:On and on he blathered, taking refuge in the one thing he felt lent him superiority: words.
- (transitive, derogatory) To say (something foolish or nonsensical); to say (something) in a foolish or overly verbose way.
1929, Eugene O’Neill, Dynamo, New York, N.Y.: Liveright, act I, scene i, page 31:Then, just before the wedding, the old man feels he’s honor bound to tell his future son-in-law the secret of his past; so the damned idiot blathers the whole story of his killing the man and breaking jail!
Derived terms
Translations
to talk rapidly without making much sense
- Arabic: بَقَّ (baqqa)
- Bulgarian: говоря празни приказки (govorja prazni prikazki)
- Czech: pindat (cs)
- Danish: skvadre, jappe, pludre
- Esperanto: babilaĉi
- Finnish: lörpötellä (fi), pälpättää (fi), pölistä (fi), kaakattaa (fi)
- French: déblatérer (fr), dégoiser (fr)
- German: quasseln (de), quatschen (de), sabbeln (de)
- Irish: bí ag glaigearacht
- Italian: blaterare (it), sproloquiare, straparlare (it)
- Ladino: shushurrear
- Maori: kunanu
- Polish: bajtlować (pl) impf, zbajtlować pf
- Portuguese: tagarelar (pt)
- Romanian: bodogăni (ro)
- Russian: тарато́рить (ru) impf (taratóritʹ), треща́ть (ru) impf (treščátʹ) (figuratively), трепа́ться (ru) impf (trepátʹsja)
- Scottish Gaelic: bleadraig
- Serbo-Croatian:
- Roman: blebetati (sh), brbljati (sh)
- Spanish: despotricar (es)
- Swedish: pladdra (sv)
- Turkish: çene çalmak (tr), gevezelik etmek (tr), saçmalamak (tr), zevzeklik etmek
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Noun
blather (uncountable)
- (derogatory) Nonsensical or foolish talk.
1897, G. A. Henty, chapter 1, in With Moore at Corunna, New York: Scribner, page 16:That is the worst of being in an Irish regiment, nothing can be done widout ever so much blather;
1922, Rafael Sabatini, chapter 23, in Captain Blood, New York: Grosset & Dunlap, page 265:Will you cease your blather of mutiny and treason and courts-martial?
1995, Rohinton Mistry, A Fine Balance, Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, Part 5, p. 280:With years of proofreading under my belt, I knew exactly the blather and bluster favoured by professional politicians.
Synonyms
Translations
nonsensical or foolish talk
Etymology 2
Noun
blather (plural blathers)
- Obsolete form of bladder.
- 1596, Charles Fitzgeoffrey, Sir Francis Drake His Honorable Lifes Commendation, and His Tragicall Deathes Lamentation, Oxford: Joseph Barnes,
- on Vlisses Circe did bestowe
- A blather, where the windes imboweld were,
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