Chit-chat

Origin of: Chit-chat

Chit-chat

Chit, chat, chitter, chatter are all words imitative of the sounds that birds make and all these words date from The Middle Ages. All of them soon became descriptive of the talk of humans, apes, etc. To have a chit-chat is mere reduplication and means to have a light familiar chat or conservation and dates from the late 17th/early 18th century. Chatterbox, a habitual chatterer, dates from the late 18th century.