Prank, subs. (old: now recognised).—A trick.—B. E. (c.1696).
Prat, subs. (old).—1. Usually in
pl. = the buttocks or thighs.—Harman
(1573); Rowland
(1610); Head (1665); B. E.
(c.1696); Coles (1724); Grose
(1785). Hence, as verb = to
beat; to swish.
1596. Shakspeare, Merry Wives, iv. 2. Mrs. Page. Come, Mother Prat; . . . Ford. I'll prat her [Beating him].
1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-all (H. Club's Rept. 1874), 3. And tip lowr with thy prat.
1641. Brome, Jovial Crew, ii. Fiddle Patrico, and let me sing. First set me down here on both my prats.
1707. Shirley, Triumph of Wit [Farmer, Musa Pedestris (1896), 33]. No gentry mort hath prats like thine.
1895. Marriott-Watson [New Review, July, 8]. We ain't to do nothing, Dick Ryder, but to set down upon our prats and see 'em put up their hands and cry for mercy to this fire-eater here.
2. (old).—A tinder-box.—B. E. (c.1696); Grose (1785).
3. (venery).—The female pudendum: see Monosyllable.
4. (old).—A trick.
Verb. (thieves').—See quot. Fr. entauler, and enquiller.
1879. Horsley [Macm. Mag., xl. 501]. I piped a slavey (servant) come out of a chat (house), so when she had got a little way up the double (turning), I pratted (went) in the house.
Pratie (or Praty), subs. (Irish).—A
potato: see Murphy.
1834. Marryat, Peter Simple, xii. In future you must do something to get your own dinner; there's not praties enow for the whole of ye.
1857. C. Reade, Never Too Late, lxv. I wish it was pratees we are digging, I'd may be dig up a dinner any way.
Prating (prattling- or prattle-)
cheat, subs. phr. (Old Cant).—The
tongue: see Clack, where
add to syns. 'Manchester' (Eng.),
and la rouscaillante (Fr.).
[Prittle or Prattle = diminutives
of 'prate': and from pittle-pattle
the weakened reduplication
of prittle-prattle
comes pit-a-pat (q.v.).] Whence,
prating (prattle or prittle-prattle)
= talk, esp. gabble;
to prattle (prittle or prittle-prattle)
= to chatter or
clack (q.v.); prattle-basket
(-box, prate-roast, prattler,
or prate-apace) = a chatterbox;
prattle-broth = tea: cf. chatter
(or scandal-) broth (q.v.);
prattling-box = a pulpit, or
hum-box (q.v.); prattling-parlour
= a private apartment,
or snuggery (q.v.); praty
(adj.) = talkative.—Harman
(1567); B. E. (c.1696); Grose
(1785).
1520. Schole House of Women [Hazlitt, Early Pop. Poet, iv. 129]. No remedy for to discontent, To prattle to them of reason or lawe.
1528. Roy, Rede me, &c. [Arber (1871), 43]. Nevertheless amonge this arraye, Was there not . . . A littell pratye foolysshe poade?
1548. Latimer, Sermons and Remains [Parker Soc.]. To prittle-prattle prayers. Ibid. To pittle-pattle.
1577. Bellowes, Guevara Letters, 161. The office of the woman is to spin and prattle, and the office of the man is to hold his tongue and talk.
1594. Lyly, Mother Bombie, iv. 2. I see my daughter hath prattled with Accius, and discovered her simplicity.
1598. Florio, Worlde of Wordes, s.v. Cianfrogna, gibrish, pedlars french, roguish language, fustian toong, prittle-prattle.
1598. Shakspeare, All's Well, iv. 1, 46. Tongue, I must put you into a butter-woman's mouth, and buy myself another of Bajazet's mule, if you prattle
