Word Origin: Blatherskite

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In preparation for my word nerdage post I was reading through lists of words considered, at least by those writers, as obsolete. It was both amusing and shocking (and, honestly, a little sad) to see what words made the list and just how many of them I actually knew. I love words and I come from a family that loves words so it was truly surprising to see so many words that I know (and have even used or heard on a regular basis) considered among the arcane and obsolete. I think it’s time to change that.

So, I’ve picked one of my favorites for this post that I think deserves more usage. It is, once again, an insult, but it can’t be helped that some of the most fun words out there to say are words of insultation. There are just so many of them and, I partially blame Shakespeare for this as he elevated the crafting of insults to an art form, so many just spark the imagination with their vividness. This one is no exception and just roles off the tongue in a most pleasing fashion: blatherskite.

A blatherskite is a person who endlessly talks nonsense. It’s Scottish in origin (who probably obtained it from Old Norse) and dates to about 1650. The word derived of two parts: ‘blather’ a verb meaning to ‘talk nonsense’ (from the Scottish word blether which, in turn, is possibly derive from blaðra in Old Norse "mutter, wag the tongue") and the noun ‘skite’ a dialectal word referring to a ‘contemptible person.’

Word usage charts show that it saw considerable use during the mid/late 1800s through to the 1920s when it started to drop off significantly. It has, according to those same charts, interestingly enough started to make a bit of a come back. how about we see that that upward trend continues? Surely, there’s a place in a story somewhere for a blatherskite.

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