Definition: To jabber blether (nonsense); to blabber nonsensically.

Usage: Seldom is the vowel so unimportant in a word as it is in today's. In the US today, a blithering idiot blathers. How come? Not everything melts in the melting pot. The original word is "blether," which offers us today the choice of [e], [a] or [i] as a root vowel from different dialects. Today, "blither" and "blather" are acceptable alternative spellings and pronunciations. In his poem 'Vision' (1786), Robert Burns describes how he wasted his youth "stringing blethers up in rhyme, For fools to sing." As you can see, "blether" is also a noun. "Blithe" is unrelated.

Suggested Usage: What this means is that you may substitute either [a] or [i] for the vowel of the word in the following examples. "I told him I would rather eat okra than go out with him and left him blethering billingsgate by the water cooler." You may consider the [e] a place-holder for the other two vowels unless you live in a region that actually uses the original pronunciation: "Bernadette blethered all evening about her previous boyfriends while I sat by her thinking about mama's cooking."

Etymology: Originally from the PIE *bhle-. With different suffixes, this root appears in "blast," "blow," "blaze," "bladder," not to mention German blasen "blow." English borrowed it from Old Norse bladhra "chatter," probably related to the idea of blowing hot air in English. The initial PIE [bh] became [f] in Latin, so the same root can be found in Latin flare "blow," which underlies both "flatulent" and "flavor" in English. For another slice of PIE, please read our FAQ sheet, linked to the front page.