PATTER
PATTER [From Latin Paternoster Our Father (the name of a common Christian prayer), used as a verb meaning ‘to gabble, recite quickly’, then as a noun for any gabbling ritual or routine].
1. Rapid, fluent speech that may or may not make sense or be sincerely intended, like someone going meaninglessly through a ritual learned by heart.
2. The stylized LINGO of salesmen, hucksters, sideshow barkers, conjurors, and comedians: ‘Nothing up my sleeve, ladies and gentlemen, nothing down my trousers, and we take the bunny rabbit like so, you see—everybody see?—and—hey presto! No more bunny rabbit!’
3. Stylized DIALOGUE, such as the rehearsed routines of stand-up comics, one of whom is the straight man, the other the funny man.
4. Especially in GLASGOW in Scotland, words used with skill: Ah like yur patter, Jimmy—yur patter runs like watter. Someone fluent and garrulous, whether sincere or otherwise, is a patter merchant. From this usage, the term has been extended to Glasgow dialect, often called the patter. See BLARNEY, NONSENSE, RAP.
1. Rapid, fluent speech that may or may not make sense or be sincerely intended, like someone going meaninglessly through a ritual learned by heart.
2. The stylized LINGO of salesmen, hucksters, sideshow barkers, conjurors, and comedians: ‘Nothing up my sleeve, ladies and gentlemen, nothing down my trousers, and we take the bunny rabbit like so, you see—everybody see?—and—hey presto! No more bunny rabbit!’
3. Stylized DIALOGUE, such as the rehearsed routines of stand-up comics, one of whom is the straight man, the other the funny man.
4. Especially in GLASGOW in Scotland, words used with skill: Ah like yur patter, Jimmy—yur patter runs like watter. Someone fluent and garrulous, whether sincere or otherwise, is a patter merchant. From this usage, the term has been extended to Glasgow dialect, often called the patter. See BLARNEY, NONSENSE, RAP.
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PATTER