Brewer's: Patter

To chatter, to clack. Dr. Pusey thinks it is derived from Paternoster (the Lord's Prayer). The priest recited it in a low, mumbling voice till he came to the words, “and lead us not into temptation,” which he spoke aloud, and the choir responded, “but deliver us from evil.” In our reformed Prayer Book, the priest is directed to say the whole prayer “with a loud voice.” Probably the “pattering of rain” —i.e. the rain coming with its pit-pat, is after all the better derivation.

Gipsy talk is so called from the French patois. (See Patavinity.)

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