pratfall

Words
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1

Continuing the discussion from The Godmakers:

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pratfall

Huh, some interesting variations on the theme:

pratfall ( plural pratfalls )

  1. A fall onto the buttocks.
  2. A humiliating mistake.
  3. A staged trip or fall, often for comedic purposes.

The motivational speaker started with a pratfall so he could speak about the importance of getting back up.

Said motivational speaker?!

Hey, check out prat - Wiktionary, the free dictionary :

From Middle English prat , from Old English præt , prætt (“trick, prank, craft, art, wile”), from Proto-Germanic *prattuz (“boastful talk, deceit”), from Proto-Indo-European *brodno- (“to wander about”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian prat , Dutch pret (“fun, pleasure, gaity”), obsolete Dutch prat (“cunning, strategem, scheme, a prideful display, arrogance”), Low German prot , Norwegian prette (“trick”), Icelandic prettur (“a trick”). Related to pretty.

Noun

prat ( plural prats )

  1. (now Scotland) A cunning or mischievous trick; a prank, a joke. [from 10th c.]

I feel like “prat” needs a resurgence.

2

Interestingly, there’s another form of prat that I always though pratfall was derived from:

Noun

prat ( plural prats )

  1. (slang) A buttock, or the buttocks; a person’s bottom. [from 16th c.]
  2. (Britain, slang) A fool. [from 20th c.]
  3. (slang) The female genitals.