These words refer to glib or trivial discussion or conversation. Patter is the most general of these. It emphasizes rapidity and insincerity of speech, whereas palaver stresses a lack of real content and a tendency towards unnecessary solemnity. Patter can indicate mechanical recitation, reflecting its derivation from a reference to the hasty saying of the Paternoster; it can also refer to rehearsed comedy routines, and a kind of comic song in which the words are uttered with great rapidity and oral dexterity, or to bodies of dialect or jargon. Drawing from this range of use, patter in its conversational context adds to the emphasis on rapidity connotations of rehearsed or at least predictable conversational patterns: the conventional patter exchanged at afternoon-tea parties; tedious patter about the warm weather and high prices. A note of condescension is usually present. Palaver is also condescending, suggesting solemn exchanges that are without substance. The word can refer to a public discussion or conference, reflecting its original reference to a parley between natives and an explorer or missionary; here the condescension is quite clear. More often, the word can refer to an informal group talk, possibly assembled in haste to decide on a course of action: the palaver of neighbours gathered in front of the house from which the strange sounds were coming.

Chit-chat and small talk are both restricted to idle conversation. Chit-chat , the most informal of all these words, combines the predictability suggested by patter with the lack of substance indicated by palaver. In contrast to patter, it may point to a slow or low-keyed tempo and, unlike palaver, does not suggest group discussion so much as a random exchange of banalities or gossip: the kind of chit-chat that was a sure sign the cocktail party was dying on its feet. Small talk , by contrast, also refers to low-key and trivial talk but suggests, as well, that such a conversational vein may be the result of choice or inhibition and may serve as an ice-breaker or a prelude to more interesting matter: waiting for the small talk to finish and the real discussion to begin; rehearsing bits of small talk with which to worm her way into interesting conversations she might overhear at the party.