▪ I. twattle, n.1 Now dial.
(ˈtwɒt(ə)l)
[The vb. and n. (known in 1573 and a 1639 respectively) were perh. altered from tattle; the earliest appearance of twattle yet recorded being in the reduplicated twittle-twattle (1556), app. from tittle-tattle (evidenced a 1529).
The group of words tittle, tittle-tattle, twittle, twattle, twittle-twattle, and twaddle, being primarily colloquial and largely echoic, is prob. far from fully represented in written remains, so that dated evidence for the chronological order of these shows many lacunæ; the important data are that tittle, to whisper, is known from 1399, and tattle (in tattler) from c 1450, and that tittle-tattle, twittle-twattle, twattle, and twaddle, and their derivatives, appear successively later. No reason for the suggested change of tattle to twattle has been found, but the passage of twattle into twaddle seems certain.]
Idle talk, chatter, babble. Also in comb. twattle-basket, a chatterbox.
Passing in later use into the sense of twaddle n.
| a 1639 W. Whately Prototypes i. xix. (1640) 234 Being men of tongue,..their chiefe employment is twattle. 1650 B. Discolliminium 47 It is pity any honest man should lose his life for want of a game at Twattle. [Cf. above I cannot hold my tongue for my life.] 1687 Miége Gt. Fr. Dict. ii, Twattle-basket,..un caseur. 1699 T. Brown Let. to Dr. Brown at Tunbridge Wks. 1711 IV. 133 The empty Twattle of these silly..Country Projectors. 1715 tr. C'tess D' Aunoy's Wks. 462 Hold thy Peace, Twattle-basket. 1720 De Foe Apparition in 1665 Wks. 1841 XIX. 259 In the midst of our twattle. 1824 Cobbett Weekly Reg. L. 12 June 674 Men who have no cant, no evangelical twattle. 1876– in dialect glossaries (Yorksh., E. Anglia). |
▪ II. † twattle, n.2 (a.) Obs.
(ˈtwɒt(ə)l)
[Origin obscure. The n. can hardly be related to twattle v. or n.1]
A pygmy, a dwarf. Also attrib. or as adj.
| 1598 Florio, Pigméo, a pigmey, a kinde of little man like a dwarfe, a dandiprat, a twattle, or an elfe. 1611 Cotgr., Nain, a dwarfe, or dandiprat, an elfe, or twattle; one thats no higher then three horse-loaues. a 1693 Urquhart's Rabelais iii. xviii. 144 They shew him the short and twattle [F. petits] Verses that were written [lines of 4 syllables]. |
▪ III. ˈtwattle, v. Obs. exc. dial.
[See twattle n.1]
1. intr. To talk idly or trivially; to chatter, babble, tattle, prate.
In later use passing into sense of twaddle v.1
| 1573, 1586 [see twattling ppl. a. 1, vbl. n.]. 1596 Nashe Saffron-Walden Wks. (Grosart) III. 204 In that he twatleth, it had bin better to haue confuted Martin by Reuerend Cooper than such leuitie. a 1620 J. Dyke Sel. Serm. (1640) 34 Talking and twatling with other idle persons. 1685 J. Dunton Lett. fr. New-Eng. (1867) 7 By that time I could move my Tongue, it would be twattling of Forreign Countrys. a 1800 Pegge Suppl. Grose, Twattle, to prattle and tell idle tales. Lanc. 1833 S. Austin Charac. Goethe I. 118 He [Mephistopheles] argues, dogmatizes, and twattles right and left. 1845 S. Judd Margaret ii. ii, How I twattled, skurried! 1877– in dialect glossaries (Yorksh., E. Anglia, Cornw.). |
b. trans. To utter or tell idly.
| 1577 Stanyhurst Descr. Irel. vi. in Holinshed I. 20/2 Such fables [are] twitled, such vntrue reportes twatled. 1582 ― æneis ii. (Arb.) 46 No gloasing fabil I twattle. Ibid. iv. 101 As true tales vaynelye toe twattle. 1660 Charac. Italy 10 He [the Pope]..causeth whatsoever he parrot[s], or if you will have it Anagrammatically praterlike twattles, to pass for Bullion, and current. a 1688 Villiers (Dk. Buckhm.) Chances Wks. (1714) 149, I heard her grave Conductress twattle something as they went along. |
c. with prep. To bring or get by chattering or gossiping.
| 1692 R. L'Estrange Fables cclxxvii. (1715) II. 266 Are you not a fine Gossiping Lady..to twattle your Husband thus out of his Life and Fortune? |
2. intr. To sound, make a noise. (See also twattling ppl. a. 2.) vulgar.
| 1664 Cotton Scarron. i. 15 The Winds burst out with such a rattle, As he had broke the strings that twattle. |
3. trans. To pat, fondle, make much of. dial.
Perh. not the same word.
| 1790 Grose Provinc. Gloss. (ed. 2), Twattle, to pat, to make much of, as horses, cows, dogs. North. 1825 Brockett N.C. Words, Twattle, to pat, to make much of, to fondle. |