Word for the day: "chunter"

"In fact, it is perfectly possible to hold both views: Johnson did deliver numerous untruths, and they were allowed to lie there like fish out of their bowl, flapping on the floor until they died. Also, Marr was pretty rude; “You’re chuntering,” he said at one point, which he never would have said to Theresa May, who chuntered constantly. I suspect a bit of professional pride, Marr smarting that he is seen as softer than Neil (he is). I also think Marr did well – and maybe it is right to be rude to a prime minister who has done so much to corrode civility and trust in such a short time."

Totally new to me, and I couldn't even guess the meaning, so I turned to Wiktionary:

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)


Verb

chunter (third-person singular simple present chunters, present participle chuntering, simple past and past participle chuntered)

1. (Britain, dialectal) To speak in a soft, indistinct manner, mutter.
1. (Britain, dialectal) To grumble, complain.

The citation for meaning #1 is to J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix ("Ron continued to chunter under his breath all the way down the street"), so I thought perhaps it was her neologism, but at the bottom of the page I found this reference: “D. H. Lawrence gave a new lease on life to the verb to chunter, ‘to mutter, complain’, labelled “Obs. exc. dial”, when he used it in Sea and Sardinia (1921)".

So I had to go to my OED, where there are citations back to the 1600s, and some slight variations on the meaning ("to express discontent about trifles" and "to be sulky with impertinence.")