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*bʰleh₁-1‘to blow’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*blēdrǭ2‘bubble, blister, something inflated’reconstructed
  3. Old Norsec. 800–1350blaðra3‘to speak inarticulately, talk nonsense’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500bletheren3
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1866blather3

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Proto-Germanic *blēdrǭ
  2. 2 Wiktionary, Old Norse blaðra
  3. 3 Wiktionary, English blather
  4. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1866, George Eliot pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons: ““There you go blatherin’,” said Brindle, intending a mild…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*bʰleh₁-Wiktionary, Proto-Germanic *blēdrǭ‘to blow’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*blēdrǭWiktionary, Old Norse blaðra‘bubble, blister, something inflated’reconstructed
  3. Old Norsec. 800–1350blaðraWiktionary, English blather‘to speak inarticulately, talk nonsense’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500bletherenWiktionary, English blather
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1866blatherWiktionary, English blather. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 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, conflate, blare, blithely, 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.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “blather”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entries for Proto-Germanic *blēdrǭ, Old Norse blaðra. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

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

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