blatherskite
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English
Alternative forms
- blatherskate, bletherskate
- bladderskate, bladderskite, bletherskite, blatherumskite, blatheremskyte, bletheran skate, bletherkumskite (Scotland)
Etymology
From blather + skite (“shit, shite”). Alternatively the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary asserts that the word is of Scottish origin, with blather/blether + skate referring to someone who is "contemptible". First use of the term dates to the mid-17th century. Compare cheapskate.
Pronunciation
Noun
blatherskite (countable and uncountable, plural blatherskites)
- A voluble purveyor of nonsense; a blusterer.
- Synonyms: bloviator, windbag; see also Thesaurus:chatterbox
- 1889, Mark Twain, “Slow Torture”, in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, New York: Charles L. Webster & Company:
- She never had any ideas, any more than a fog has. She was a perfect blatherskite; I mean for jaw, jaw, jaw, talk, talk, talk, jabber, jabber, jabber; but just as good as she could be.
- 1922, Sinclair Lewis, chapter 32, in Babbitt:
- Babbitt was frightened, but he had an agonized instinct that if he yielded in this he would yield in everything. He protested: “You're exaggerating, Colonel. I believe in being broad-minded and liberal, but, of course, I'm just as much agin the cranks and blatherskites and labor unions and so on as you are. ”
- 1951 July 14, The Wearing of the Grin, spoken by O'Mike:
- Silence in the courtroom, you blatherskite!
- For more quotations using this term, see Citations:blatherskite.
- A worthless fellow; a deadbeat.
- Synonyms: good-for-nothing, punk; see also Thesaurus:worthless person
- 1872, Levi Bishop, “Blatherskite”, in Teuchsa Grondie: A Legendary Poem, 2nd edition, Albany: Weed, Parsons and Company, pages 546–547:
- Who social circle ape to lead, / Without the solid requisite; / Where high pretension is the creed, / And every look betrays the breed; / Avaunt, ye vulgar blatherskite.
- 1896, Mark Twain, “Tom Sawyer Discovers the Murderers”, in Tom Sawyer, Detective:
- When that man there, Bruce Dunlap, had most worried the life and sense out of Uncle Silas till at last he plumb lost his mind and hit this other blatherskite, his brother, with a club, I reckon he seen his chance.
- Nonsense or blather; empty talk.
- Synonyms: drivel, poppycock; see also Thesaurus:nonsense
- 1894 February, “English and American Theories”, in Lend a Hand, volume 12, number 2, Boston: J. Stilman Smith & Co, page 88:
- Now such a state of affairs as that is unknown in England. To print this statement is to expose ourselves there to the suspicion of blatherskite and exaggeration.
References
- John S Farmer, compiler (1890) “Blatherskite, subs.”, in Slang and Its Analogues Past and Present. ">…], volume I, ">…] Thomas Poulter and Sons] , →OCLC, page 223.
- Wright, Joseph (1898) The English Dialect Dictionary, volume 1, Oxford: Oxford University Press, page 292