Banter

How to spell banter

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce banter

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does banter mean?

1. nounPlayful, teasing conversation exchanged in a friendly way.
2. verbTo exchange teasing, good-humoured remarks with someone.

Banter in a sentence

• noun

  The office banter kept everyone in good spirits during the long shift.

• verb

  The colleagues would banter about football every Monday morning.

• noun

  There was plenty of banter between the two teams before the match.

• verb

  She liked to banter with the regulars at the cafe counter.

Where does banter come from?

Language of origin: Unknown

Banter appeared in English in the late 1600s, first as a verb meaning to mock or tease someone in a good-humoured way, and only later as the noun for that kind of playful talk. Its exact origin is genuinely unknown, which is unusual for a word so common today. The writer Jonathan Swift, in the preface to his 'A Tale of a Tub', sneered at banter as fashionable slang of the streets and theatres, evidence that it had bubbled up from spoken city culture rather than from books. Because it has no Latin or Greek pedigree, there is no helpful root to anchor the spelling; you simply remember the plain ban + ter pattern. Some have guessed at a link to other teasing words, but no convincing source has ever been proven, so the honest answer is that it sprang up as informal English.

How the word is built

• banter (a single root with no clear prefix or suffix; first attested as a verb of unknown formation)