smatter

Etymology

From Middle English smatteren, smateren. Compare Swedish smattra, Danish and Norwegian smadre (all of which mean to patter), German schmettern (“to resound”).

verb

1. (intransitive) To talk superficially; to babble, chatter.
   What standest thou there all the day smatterynge 1533, John Heywood, A Mery Play Betwene the Pardoner and the Frere, London: Wyllyam Rastell
   Of state affairs you cannot smatter; Are awkward when you try to flatter; 1733, Jonathan Swift “On Poetry” in The Poetical Works of Jonathan Swift, London: William Pickering, 1833, Volume 2, pp. 63-64, For poets, law makes no provision; The wealthy have you in derision
2. (transitive) To speak (a language) with spotty or superficial knowledge.
   The languages of Polynesia are easy to smatter, though hard to speak with elegance. 1891, Robert Louis Stevenson, chapter 2, in In the South Seas, New York: Scribner, published 1896, page 9
3. (transitive, figurative) To study or approach superficially; to dabble in.
4. To have a slight taste, or a slight, superficial knowledge, of anything; to smack.

noun

1. A smattering (small number or amount).
   a smatter of applause
2. A smattering (superficial knowledge).