smatter
Meanings
- To make (someone or something) dirty; to bespatter, to soil.
- To hit (someone or something) with a liquid; to splash, to spatter.
- To approach or study (something, such as a subject) superficially; to dabble in.
- To speak (a language or words) with only a superficial knowledge of it.
- To hit with a liquid; to splash, to spatter.
- To have a slight, superficial knowledge of something; to dabble.
- To talk ignorantly or superficially; to babble, to chatter.
- Synonym of smattering.
- A shallow or superficial knowledge of a subject.
- A small amount or number of something.
Pronunciation
Word forms
Etymology
The verb is derived from Middle English smateren, smatteren, smater, smatere (“to make dirty, defile; to talk idly, chatter; to speak foolishly”); further etymology uncertain, compare the following: * Middle English smotten (“to corrupt, debase, defile”) (whence English smot (obsolete)), related to Late Middle High German smotzen, a variant of smutzen (whence modern German schmutzen (“to become dirty or soiled; to make dirty, soil”)), from smuz (“dirt”). * Danish smadre (“to smash”), German schmettern (“to smash; to resound”) (from Middle High German smetern (“to chatter; to rattle; (dialectal) to make a smacking sound”)); Norwegian Bokmål smadre (“to smash”), Swedish smattra (“to make short, sharp, quickly repeating noises, patter, rattle”), possibly originally onomatopoeic. However, the Oxford English Dictionary says “real connection is very doubtful”. The noun is derived from the verb.