Link Centre Dictionary

banter

ban·ter

UK/ˈbæntə/ US/ˈbæntɚ/ uncommon uk us
noun (1) verb (1)

noun

1.

verb

1.

be silly or tease one another

  • “After we relaxed, we just kidded around”
Synonyms

Origin

1670s as verb, 1680s as noun. The origin is unknown, possibly from London street slang; ostensibly as *bant + -er (frequentative suffix). Possibly an Anglo-Gaelicism from the Irish bean (“woman”), so that "banter" means "talk of women."

Phrases

  • Archbishop of Banterbury
  • Bantersaurus Rex
  • soy banter

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WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.