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Make Your Point > Archived Issues > PRATFALL

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pronounce PRATFALL:

PRAT fall
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connect this word to others:

Oh, you guys, I can't stop laughing. Somehow I made it well into adulthood without realizing that pratfall literally means "a fall down on your butt" (and that willy-nilly, or as Rollie Williams of ClimateTown says, William Nilliam, first meant "willing or unwilling"). 

Fun synonyms of pratfall include flop, fiasco, and deb____.

Can you recall that last one? It can mean "a flood, or the breaking up of ice in a river." But most of the time it means "a sudden violent collapse, defeat, or failure of any kind."

(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.) 

definition:

The word "pratfall" dates back to 1903. It's American theater slang for "a fall onto your backside"—"prat" being another word for "backside."

These days, you'll find the word "pratfall" even in serious contexts, so clearly, not everyone knows that it literally means "a theatrical and amusing fall onto one's butt." 

More generally, a pratfall is any stupid or embarrassing mistake.

grammatical bits:

Part of speech:

Most often a noun, the countable kind: "If a movie is about an adorable dork, I guarantee she's taking a pratfall;" "Jaime French keeps an ever-growing reel of female movie protagonists' pratfalls."

Also a verb, the transitive kind: "I'm likely to pratfall directly onto the ice."

Other forms: 

The plural is "pratfalls," and the other verb forms are "pratfell," "pratfalling," and "pratfallen." These are so rare that they're guaranteed to make your listener laugh. "And now let's pan back to our pratfallen hero, who ran upstairs in a horror movie instead of out the front door."

how to use it:

Pick the slangy, somewhat rare word "pratfall" when you want to strike a lighthearted tone as you label some person's literal or figurative backward splat onto their butt.

Talk about a person's pratfalls: "I'd hate to be famous, with all my pratfalls all over social media."

Or, talk about a person taking a pratfall: "Every time a celebrity takes a pratfall, it's publicized. Oof."

Or, talk about an event or a period of time that's full of pratfalls, cluttered with pratfalls, peppered with pratfalls, etc. 

examples:

"They were sensitive and easily wounded macho guys, given to pratfalls of every variety." 
— Dwight Garner, New York Times, 28 March 2016

"[In the movie Lilo and Stitch,] Elvis numbers and surfing pratfalls abound."
— Wendy Ide, Mark Kermode, Guy Lodge, Jonathan Romney and Simran Hans; The Guardian; 24 June 2017

has this page helped you understand "pratfall"?

   

Awesome, I'm glad it helped!

Thanks for letting me know!
If you have any questions about this word, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.


study it:

Explain the meaning of "pratfall" without saying "flub" or "blooper."

try it out:

"Pratfall" is most often a noun, and hardly ever a verb. So, using it as a verb is especially fun and emphatic: it catches your reader by surprise.

Fill in the blanks: "(Someone or something) pratfalls (downward in some way)."

Example 1: "I stuck with most of my resolutions through January and February, then pratfell into laziness around March."

Example 2:  "Of last weekend's new offerings, the dystopian vampire drama Daybreakers and the Michael Cera comedy Youth in Revolt lost way more than half their original grosses to pratfall out of the top 10."
— Richard Corliss, Time, 17 January 2010




before you review, play:

Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.

Our game for August is "Degrees of Venndom."

I'll give you a pair of terms, and you decide how Venn-diagrammable they are. It's harder than it sounds! To see my suggested answer, scroll all the way down. Your response doesn't need to match mine; you should just be able to defend yours.

Try this today: At what degree of Venndom do COMPANY and COMPANIONSHIP exist? 

4th degree: these terms never overlap, like DOG and CAT.

3rd degree: these terms are nested, with one term always the other but not vice versa, like KITTEN and CAT.

2nd degree: these terms sometimes overlap, like PET and MAMMAL.

1st degree: these terms always overlap, like CAT and FELINE.

review this word:

1. The opposite of PRATFALL could be

A. DOWNFALL.
B. SLAM DUNK.
C. WEIGHTLIFTING.

2. In a song, Olivia Rodrigo lists several pratfalls, including a literal one: "_____."

A. I broke a glass; I tripped and fell; I told secrets I shouldn't tell
B. She's talented; she's good with kids; she even speaks kindly about me
C. I am light as a feather, I'm as stiff as a board; I pay attention to things that most people ignore




Answers to the review questions:
1. B
2. A

Answer to the game question:

I'd say COMPANY and COMPANIONSHIP are at the 2nd degree. Sometimes they're interchangeable; sometimes, not.


a final word:


I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.

I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.


From my blog:
On vocabulary...
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      Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
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      How to motivate our kids to write.
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A disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.

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