251. _Chatter-box._--The derivation of this word would seem very plain,
and yet I have some doubts about it. I used to think that we called a
person a "chatter-box" because he or she was, metaphorically speaking, a
box full of chatter, as we should call another person a _bag-of-bones_.
And this seemed confirmed by the German _plaudertasche_, or a
_chatter-bag_, till I learnt from Wackernagel, _Glossar_, that in the
Middle High German _Tasche_ = _a woman_. (See under "Flattertasche.") I
believe we meet with the word again in the epithet _Maultasche_ applied
to the celebrated Margaret Maultasche, the wife of Louis the Elder;
_i.e._ Margaret, the woman with the large mouth. The word also occurs in
the Danish _Taske_ = _a girl_, _a wench_. Hence, I conclude that there
is no doubt but that the German _plaudertasche_ means a chattering
woman. Has our _chatter-box_ the same meaning--_i.e._ is there a word
for _woman_ or _female_ in any of our ancient languages from which _box_
might arise? The only word which occurs to me just now as confirming
such a supposition is _buxom_ ("to be bonere and buxom, in bedde and at
borde." Ancient Matrimony Service), which is thus = _womanly_.