natter

See also: Natter and nätter

English

Etymology

From a Northern England dialectal variant of gnatter (also knatter) ("to chatter, grumble; nibble away at"), ultimately of imitative origin. Cognate with German Low German gnattern (“to mumble, grumble, be grouchy”).

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈnætɚ/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈnætə/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ætə(ɹ)
• Hyphenation: nat‧ter

Verb

natter (third-person singular simple present natters, present participle nattering, simple past and past participle nattered)

1. (colloquial) To talk casually; to discuss unimportant matters.

   What are you guys nattering about? You're clearly not following the meeting!

2. (Scotland) To nag.

Derived terms

• nattersome

Translations

to talk idly

• Bulgarian: бърборя (bg) (bǎrborja)
• Danish: plapre
• Finnish: pulista (fi), jutella (fi)
• French: bavarder (fr), blablater (fr), papoter (fr)
• Latin: garriō
• Portuguese: tagarelar (pt)
• Russian: болта́ть (ru) n (boltátʹ)

Noun

natter (plural natters)

1. (colloquial) Mindless and irrelevant chatter.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:chatter

Anagrams

• Arnett, attern, net art, ratten, tarten, treant

Dutch

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

Adjective

natter

1. comparative degree of nat

Anagrams

• ratten, tarten

French

Etymology

From natte +‎ -er.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /na.te/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

natter

1. to plait; to braid

Conjugation

Conjugation of natter (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	natter
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	nattant /na.tɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		natté /na.te/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	natte /nat/	nattes /nat/	natte /nat/	nattons /na.tɔ̃/	nattez /na.te/	nattent /nat/
	imperfect	nattais /na.tɛ/	nattais /na.tɛ/	nattait /na.tɛ/	nattions /na.tjɔ̃/	nattiez /na.tje/	nattaient /na.tɛ/
	past historic2	nattai /na.te/	nattas /na.ta/	natta /na.ta/	nattâmes /na.tam/	nattâtes /na.tat/	nattèrent /na.tɛʁ/
	future	natterai /na.tʁe/	natteras /na.tʁa/	nattera /na.tʁa/	natterons /na.tʁɔ̃/	natterez /na.tʁe/	natteront /na.tʁɔ̃/
	conditional	natterais /na.tʁɛ/	natterais /na.tʁɛ/	natterait /na.tʁɛ/	natterions /na.tə.ʁjɔ̃/	natteriez /na.tə.ʁje/	natteraient /na.tʁɛ/
(compound tenses)	present perfect	present indicative of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle
	past anterior2	past historic of avoir + past participle
	future perfect	future of avoir + past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional of avoir + past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il, qu’elle	que nous	que vous	qu’ils, qu’elles
(simple tenses)	present	natte /nat/	nattes /nat/	natte /nat/	nattions /na.tjɔ̃/	nattiez /na.tje/	nattent /nat/
	imperfect2	nattasse /na.tas/	nattasses /na.tas/	nattât /na.ta/	nattassions /na.ta.sjɔ̃/	nattassiez /na.ta.sje/	nattassent /na.tas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	natte /nat/	—	nattons /na.tɔ̃/	nattez /na.te/	—
compound		—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—
1 The French gerund is usable only with the preposition en.
2 In less formal writing or speech, these tenses may be found to have been replaced in the following way: past historic → present perfect past anterior → pluperfect imperfect subjunctive → present subjunctive pluperfect subjunctive → past subjunctive (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).

Derived terms

• dénatter

Further reading

• “natter”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• entrât, ratent, râtent, rentât, tarent