Etymograph

English

blather

Blather comes from Old Norse blaðra ‘to speak inarticulately, talk nonsense’, from Proto-Germanic *blēdrǭ ‘bubble, blister, something inflated’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰleh₁- ‘to blow’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*bʰleh₁-‘to blow’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*blēdrǭ‘bubble, blister, something inflated’reconstructed
  3. Old Norsec. 800–1350blaðra‘to speak inarticulately, talk nonsense’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500bletheren
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1866blather

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*bʰleh₁-‘to blow’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*blēdrǭ‘bubble, blister, something inflated’reconstructed
  3. Old Norsec. 800–1350blaðra‘to speak inarticulately, talk nonsense’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500bletheren
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1866blather

Earliest quotation: 1866, George Eliot pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons: “There you go blatherin’,” said Brindle, intending a mild…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *bʰleh₁- ‘to blow’

blow, blast, flavor, inflation, flux, bliss, fluent, confluence, fluency, feeble, inflate, fluvial, flatulence, soufflé, conflate, blare, blithely, blasé, bleat, 45 more

through Proto-Germanic *blēdrǭ ‘bubble, blister, something inflated’

bladder, 1 more

Today it means

verb To talk rapidly without making much sense.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *bʰleh₁- / blather

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