24. One woman, in 1870s Great Britain, says after another leaves, "What a chatter-box she is". What does she mean?
From Quiz Slang Words Starting With "C," from 1874 London
Answer:
She's an incessant talker.
This is slang I'd still use in the 21st Century USA, so I didn't realize it had been around so long! It meant "an incessant talker or chatterer," according to the "Slang Dictionary, Etymological, Historical and Anecdotal" (London: Chatto and Windus, 1874). The Online Etymology Dictionary dates it from 1774, as a combination of chatter and box. The Oxford English Dictionary dates a similar compound word, "prattle-basket", as early as 1602, and "prattle-box" to 1671. The idea seems to be that one imagines a container, either a box or basket, full of idle talk, either prattle or chatter, and the concept goes back hundreds of years.