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