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Origin and history of natter

natter(v.)

"grumble, chatter aimlessly, nag," 1829, northern England dialect variant of gnatter "to chatter, grumble," earlier (18c.) "to nibble away," probably of echoic origin. Related: Nattered; nattering. As a noun, 1866, from the verb.

In the United States today, we have more than our share of the nattering nabobs of negativism. They have formed their own 4-H Club — the ‘hopeless, hysterical hypochondriacs of history.' [U.S. Vice President Spiro Agnew (in reference to the media), address to the California Republican state convention, Sept. 11, 1970 (the speech was written by then-White House speechwriter William Safire)]

also from 1829

Entries linking to natter

yatter(v.)

"talk idly and incessantly," 1825, colloquial, imitative (compare yadda-yadda, natter, etc.). Related: Yattered; yattering. As a noun by 1827.

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    Trends of natter

    adapted from books.google.com/ngrams/ with a 7-year moving average; ngrams are probably unreliable.

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    confabulate
    "talk familiarly together, chat," 1610s, from confabulatus, past participle of Latin confabulari "to converse together," from assimilated form of com "with, together" (see con-) + fabulari "to talk, chat," from fabula "a tale" (from PIE root *bha- (2) "to speak, tell, say"). Psyc
    chatter
    early 13c., chateren "to twitter, make quick, shrill sounds" (of birds), "to gossip, talk idly or thoughtlessly" (of persons), earlier cheateren, chiteren, of echoic origin. Compare Dutch koeteren "jabber," Danish kvidre "twitter, chirp." Of teeth, "make a rattling noise from col
    gossip
    Old English godsibb "sponsor, godparent," from God + sibb "relative" (see sibling). The sense was extended in Middle English to "a familiar acquaintance, a friend, neighbor" (c. 1300), especially to women friends invited to attend a birth, later to "anyone engaging in familiar or
    adder
    from Proto-Germanic *naethro "a snake" (source also of Old Norse naðra, Middle Dutch nadre, Old High German natra, German Natter...
    conserve
    "to keep safe, preserve from loss or decay," late 14c., from Old French conserver (9c.), from Latin conservare "to keep, preserve, keep intact, guard," from assimilated form of com-, here perhaps an intensive prefix (see com-), + servare "keep watch, maintain" (from PIE root *ser
    converse
    mid-14c., "to move about, live, dwell; live or behave in a certain way" (senses now obsolete), from Old French and French converser "to talk, open communication between," also "to live, dwell, inhabit, reside" (12c.), and directly from Latin conversari "to live, dwell, live with,
    ratchet
    "pivoted piece designed to fit into the teeth of a ratchet-wheel, permitting the wheel to rotate in one direction but not in the other," 1650s, rochet, from French rochet "bobbin, spindle," from Italian rocchetto "spool, ratchet," diminutive of rocca "distaff," possibly from a Ge
    discourse
    late 14c., "process of understanding, reasoning, thought," from French discours, from Latin discursus "a running about," in Late Latin "conversation," in Medieval Latin "reasoning," noun use of past participle of discurrere "to run about, run to and fro, hasten," in Late Latin "t
    jaw
    late 14c., jowe, joue, "the bones of the mouth," "A word of difficult etymology" [OED]. Probably from Old French joue "cheek," originally jode, from Gallo-Romance *gauta or directly from Gaulish *gabata, but there are phonetic problems; or perhaps a variant of Germanic words rela
    visit
    c. 1200, "come to (a person) to comfort or benefit," from Old French visiter "to visit; inspect, examine; afflict" (12c.) and directly from Latin visitare "to go to see, come to inspect," frequentative of visere "behold, visit" (a person or place), from past participle stem of vi

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