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enthusiast
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Is there a single word for (noun) "someone who speaks irrelevantly"?
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Carpal Tunnel
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must resist temptation...
formerly known as etaoin...
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Carpal Tunnel
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Eta ~ If you are not good, Santa will put a lump of coal in your stocking. 
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blabbermouth -- not precisely it, as this carries the sense of not keeping confidences.
gasbag -- still not precisely it, as this carries the sense of self-importance.
loquacious -- close but not it, as this can mean talkative without being irrelevant.
garrulous -- this might be it.
circumloqutious -- close, but carries the sense of talking all around a subject on purpose, whereas the irrelevant talker does not necessary seek to avoid direct speech.
Oops, the last three are not nouns. Oh, well.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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Prattler? You may have stumbled upon another of those concepts for which there's no word
dalehileman
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enthusiast
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Blatherskite does come close, but none of them quite hits the nail on the head. Most of the aforementioned terms basically mean "talkative", which does not necessarily mean the person at question speaks irrelevantly, just that he/she speaks a lot.
Never heard of gasbag! is that slang?
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Pooh-Bah
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One of Merriam's defs for prattle is meaningless or empty talk; not a perfect fit but close
dalehileman
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I still think blatherskite is exactly what you asked for. Blather means to talk nonsensically (from the root word suggesting 'blowing' etc - see ref below), and skite comes from a ME word for diarrhoea from an ancient Norse word meaning shit, so a blatherskite is someone who literally talks a load of uncontrolled meaningless crap.
blather
SYLLABICATION: blath·er
PRONUNCIATION: blthr
VARIANT FORMS: also bleth·er (blth-)
INTRANSITIVE VERB: Inflected forms: blath·ered, blath·er·ing, blath·ers
To talk nonsensically.
NOUN: Nonsensical talk.
ETYMOLOGY: Old Norse bladhra. See bhl- in Appendix I.
OTHER FORMS: blather·er —NOUN
~ copyright American Heritage AH bladder
Last edited by maverick; 11/27/2005 2:03 AM.
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enthusiast
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Well, it does mean someone who talks nonsense, or empty talk; but it doesn't mean there's a topic at hand and that the person talks irrelevantly (i.e. nothing pertaining to the topic)?
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Wouldn't your definition of relevance to a discussion include as a key point that the contribution be on topic and controlled? But maybe I just haven't quite grasped the nuance of what was in your mind with the question.
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Carpal Tunnel
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it seems to me that what's wanted is a word like spammer, but with a broader application.
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enthusiast
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What tsuwm said. nonsequitorator? I tried three dictionaries but no avail 
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I'm not surprised, Logwood. Try non sequitur. 
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> nonsequitorator Spammer ~ yes, I can now see the difference being got at - someone might be speaking other than nonsense yet be following only their own agenda rather than contributing to a dialogue. How about bloviorator, suggested by my brother's neologism? And btw Logwood, since you like browsing dictionaries have you discovered the rich treasures of tsuwm's project? Ron Obvious
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Latin sequitur is the third person singular present indicative of the deponent verb sequor 'to follow' (hence non sequitur means literally 'it does not follow'). Nomina agentis are usually formed on the the past passive particple form of the verb, e.g., amo 'to love' (actually literally 'I love') has a past passive particple of amatum 'loved', add the nomen agentis suffix and you get amator 'lover' (whence our amateur via French). Deponent verbs are verbs that are passive in construction, e.g., amatur 's/he is loved', but active in meaning, e.g., sequitur means 's/he follows', not 's/he is followed'. There is though a term secutor in Latin which means follower, so you could say something like nonsecutor, which in colloquial English has the unfortune to sound like non sequitur. Plus, that you can't really use non as a prefix. Or that the form should be more like 'a person who says non sequitur'. I think you'd need a word more like the Greek barbaros 'stammerer, barbarian, somebody who can't speak Greek properly'. There are some verbs in Latin that mean prattle, and you might form nomina agentis with them: e.g., crepo 'to creak, rattle; prattle' > crepitor (though the danger with this one is that it could be interpreted as 'farter'), adblatero 'to prattle, chatter' > adblaterator (cf. balteratus 'babbling, prating'), argutor 'to prattle' > argutator (though this has an established meaning of 'subtle disputant').
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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enthusiast
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This may be irrelevant, but we had a teacher in 6th grade, Sister Teresa Barnard (TB), who often said, "Empty barrels make the most noise."
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Carpal Tunnel
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Here's a list; perhaps one of these will do: list
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enthusiast
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Heh fascinating list. I should've gave the Reverse Dictionary a try, but I underestimated its quality. Also, I just realized that we're all anglophones.
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Carpal Tunnel
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'Tis somewhat *sequential that "prophet" is first on that list.
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> 'Tis somewhat *sequential that "prophet" is first on that list.
he said, irreverently.
formerly known as etaoin...
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Quote:
> 'Tis somewhat *sequential that "prophet" is first on that list.
he said, irreverently.
It's the American Way, he said revelatorily
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have I got a Job for you....
formerly known as etaoin...
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can't stand around in macs waiting for the rain...
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stranger
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stranger
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How about this, as at least a fine example thereof : candidate.
And, come to think of it, if the irrelevance is purposeful (another bag of wordworms), try "obfuscator".
I understand that neither of these address the irrelevance, the whole irrelevance, and nothing but the irrelevance. This topic just goes to show you what a delightful spectrum of irrelevant response awaits your every conversation!
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Carpal Tunnel
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Quote:
...
I understand that neither of these address the irrelevance, the whole irrelevance, and nothing but the irrelevance. This topic just goes to show you what a delightful spectrum of irrelevant response awaits your every conversation!
Yes! Stick around and post your nonsequito/urian irrevelances too, even proactively, should you wish!
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Carpal Tunnel
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can't stand around in macs
You could write a book.
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