[f. CHATTER v. + -ER1.]
1. One who chatters; an idle and petty talker, prater, babbler, tattler, prattler.
1540. Hyrde, trans. Vives’ Instr. Chr. Wom., I. xvi. (1592), N j (R.). They ment they were bablers, and chatter[er]s.
1693. W. Robertson, Phraseol. Gen., 193. A babbler, prater, chatterer or jangler; a man more full of words than wit.
1794. Mathias, Purs. Lit. (1798), 77. Mere London Divines … chatterers in booksellers shops.
1881. Goldw. Smith, Lect. & Ess., 161. A voluble and empty chatterer.
1884. J. Parker, Larger Ministry, 51. A chatterer of other-world phrases.
2. The name of birds of the family Ampelidæ; esp. the Bohemian Chatterer or Waxwing (Ampelis garrula); in N. Amer. the Cedar-bird or Chatterer of Carolina (A. carolinensis or cedrorum).
1730. Mortimer, in Phil. Trans., XXXVI. 431. Garrulus Carolinensis, the Chatterer.
1768. Pennant, Brit. Zool., II. 508. The chatterer visits this kingdom at very uncertain times.
1863. Bates, Nat. Amazons, iv. 71. I saw here for the first time the Sky-blue Chatterer (Ampelis Cotinga) … it is a dull, quiet bird.
1864. [H. W. Wheelwright], Spring in Lapl., 279. There is no northern bird whose breeding habits have been shrouded in such mystery as the waxwing chatterer.
