prat

Etymology 1

From Middle English prat, from Old English præt, prætt (“trick, prank, craft, art, wile”), from Proto-West Germanic *prattu, from Proto-Germanic *prattuz (“boastful talk, deceit”), from Proto-Indo-European *brodno- (“to wander about”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian prat, Dutch pret (“fun, pleasure, gaity”), obsolete Dutch prat (“cunning, strategem, scheme, a prideful display, arrogance”), Low German prot, Norwegian prette (“trick”), Icelandic prettur (“a trick”). Related to pretty.

noun

1. (now Scotland) A cunning or mischievous trick; a prank, a joke.

adj

1. (obsolete) Cunning, astute.

Etymology 2

Unknown. Perhaps a specialised use of Etymology 1 (see above).

noun

1. (slang) A buttock, or the buttocks; a person's bottom.
   Pratt, a Buttock. 1608, Thomas Dekker, The Canters Dictionarie in The Belman of London (second part Lanthorne and Candlelight)
   No gentry mort hath prats like thine, / No cove e'er wap'd with such a one. 1707, John Shirley, “The Maunder's Praise of his Strowling Mort”, in The Triumph of Wit
   Burt shook his head, wanting to tell Mac what a pain in the prat he was when he went on a take, but instead, repeated his instruction, keeping his voice at a whisper, moving his fingertips along the table […] 1952, Leonard Bishop, Down All Your Streets, page 218
   Mungo didn't like their attitude. Nor did he like exposing his prat in mixed company. 1982, TC Boyle, Water Music, Penguin, published 2006, page 5
2. (UK, slang) A fool.
   Those protestors will have achieved nothing good. They are stupid prats. 29 June 2023, Metro, London, page 10, column 3
3. (slang) The female genitals.
   "She's a far better piece Than the Viceroy's niece, Who has also more fur on her prat." 1967 (sourced to 1942), William A. Schwartz, The Limerick: 1700 Examples with Notes, Variants and Examples Vol 1, Greenleaf Classics 1967, p. 124
   ...they would kidnap a girl and take her back to their camp where they would pull down her knickers, hoping to find hairs on her prat. 1984 John Murray, ed, Panurge, Vol 1–3, p. 39
   My prat was sore from the unfamiliar activities of the night before, but my virgin bleeding had ceased, and we rode most of the day in that unworldly haze that comes with lack of sleep. 2005, Sherrie Seibert Goff, The Arms of Quirinus, iUniverse, page 135