prate

Etymology

From Middle English praten; related to Dutch praten (“to talk, chat”), Low German praten, Danish prate, Swedish prata (“to talk, prate”), Faroese práta (“to talk, gossip”), Icelandic prata; all ultimately from Proto-Germanic *prattuz (“idle or boastful talk, deceit”), from Proto-Indo-European *brodno- (“to wander, rove”). Cognate with Polish bredzić (“to rave, jabber”), Latvian bradāt (“to talk nonsense”).

noun

1. Talk to little purpose; trifling talk; unmeaningful loquacity.

verb

1. (transitive, intransitive) To talk much and to little purpose; to be loquacious; to speak foolishly.
   They are not so chic, these kids. They don’t haunt press receptions or opening nights; they don’t pose as street punks in the style of Bruce Springsteen, or prate of rock & Rimbaud. June 7, 1976, Nik Cohn, “Inside the Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night”, in New York Magazine
   Puffed up with fake jocularity, Bill epitomizes the smiley, buck-passing, back-stabbing, passive-aggressive office dictator who fears and despises his underlings while prating nauseatingly about everybody being one big happy family. 1999-02-19, Stephen Holden, “'Office Space': One Big Happy Family? No, Not at This Company”, in New York Times