Blatherskite

Word of the Day for Thursday 13^th February 2014

Blatherskite \BLATH-er-skahyt\, noun:

1. a person given to voluble, empty talk.
2. nonsense; blather.

It seems to me that no one can contemplate this odd creature, this quaint and curious blatherskite, without admiring McClintock, or, at any rate, loving him and feeling grateful to him …
-- Mark Twain, "A Cure for the Blues," 1893

That bubbling, breezy blatherskite, the boisterous bobolink/ Is such a deep philosopher he's far too wise to think.
-- Sam Walter Foss, "Bobolink Philosophy," Back Country Poems, 1892

Blatherskite was a popular colloquialism in the U.S. in the early 1800s, thanks in part to a Scottish song called "Maggie Lauder," which featured the word (spelled bletherskate) and was popular among soldiers during the American Revolutionary War.

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com