Patter vs Patten - What's the difference?
patter | patten |
The soft sound of feet walking on a hard surface.
*{{quote-book, year=1907, author=
, title=The Dust of Conflict
, chapter=7 To make irregularly repeated sounds of low-to-moderate magnitude and lower-than-average pitch.
* Thomson
To spatter; to sprinkle.
* J. R. Drake
To speak in such a way – glibly and rapidly, such as from an auctioneer, or when bantering during a sports event.
* Mayhew
English onomatopoeias
Any of various types of footwear with thick soles, often used to elevate the foot, especially wooden clogs.
* 1660 , (Samuel Pepys), Diary , 24 Jan 1660:
*
(UK, dialect, obsolete) A stilt.
As nouns the difference between patter and patten
is that patter is the soft sound of feet walking on a hard surface while patten is any of various types of footwear with thick soles, often used to elevate the foot, especially wooden clogs.As a verb patter
is to make irregularly repeated sounds of low-to-moderate magnitude and lower-than-average pitch.patter
English
Etymology 1
1610s, of (onomatopoeia) origin.Noun
(en noun)- I could hear the patter of mice running about in the dark.
citation, passage=The patter of feet, and clatter of strap and swivel, seemed to swell into a bewildering din, but they were almost upon the fielato offices, where the carretera entered the town, before a rifle flashed.}}
Derived terms
* pitter-patterVerb
(en verb)- The bullets pattered into the log-cabin walls.
- The stealing shower is scarce to patter heard.
- Patter the water about the boat.
Etymology 2
Circa 1400, from . Noun attested 1758, originally referring to the cant of thieves and beggers.Verb
(en verb)- I've gone out and pattered to get money.
Derived terms
* Glasgow patterEtymology 3
References
patten
English
Noun
(en noun)- I went and told part of the excise money till twelve o’clock, and then called on my wife and took her to Mr. Pierces, she in the way being exceedingly troubled with a pair of new pattens , and I vexed to go so slow, it being late.
- Tom Freckle, the smith's son, was the next victim to her rage. He was an ingenious workman, and made excellent pattens'; nay, the very ' patten with which he was knocked down was his own workmanship.
- (Halliwell)
