smatter

verb

babble or speak in an amateurish manner

Wiktionary

Pronunciation: /ˈsmætə/ / /ˈsmætəɹ/ / [-ɾəɹ]

noun

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.

Synonym of smattering.
“[A]ll other Sciences, they vvere in a manner extinguiſh'd during the Courſe of this Empire, excepting only a Smatter of Judicial Aſtrology, by vvhich, under the Name of Chaldeans, ſome of that Race long amazed ignorant and credulous People.”
Synonym of smattering.
“a smatter of applause”
“[H]e can pray, and tell long Scrifts of Greek, / And broken Smatters of the Hebrevv ſpeak; / And in the Latin he is nicely read; / Can ſcrape and jouk; then is not he vvell bred?”

verb

To make (someone or something) dirty; to bespatter, to soil.
“To ſay the Ieſuites are all ſmattred vvith Atheiſme, I vvill not: and to ſay, that any of them all are abſolutely ſcotfree from it, I cannot: it is ſo repugnant from their ovvne principles.”
“[I]f euer you ſee father Parſons booke of intended Reformation, you vvill finde roome ynough to put in more odious ſtuffe then I haue handled, or am vvilling to ſmatter my pen vvithall.”
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.
“I have smattered law, smattered letters, smattered geography, smattered mathematics; I have even a working knowledge of judicial astrology; and here I stand, all London roaring by at the street's end, as impotent as any baby.”
To speak (a language or words) with only a superficial knowledge of it.
“The Barber ſmatters latin, I remember.”
“All this, vvithout a Gloſs or Comment, / He vvould unriddle in a moment / In proper terms, ſuch as men ſmatter / VVhen they throvv out and miſs the matter.”
To hit with a liquid; to splash, to spatter.
To have a slight, superficial knowledge of something; to dabble.
“He ſmattereth a lytell of the lawe: […]”
To talk ignorantly or superficially; to babble, to chatter.
“How Cownterfet Cowntenaunce of the new get / With Crafty Conueyauance dothe smater and flater, / And Cloked Collucyoun is brought in to clater / With Courtely Abusyoun; […]”
“For I abhore to smatter / Of one so deuyllysshe a matter.”