gobbledygook
pronunciation
How to pronounce gobbledygook in British English:
UK ['gɒbldɪgʊk]
How to pronounce gobbledygook in American English:
US [ˈɡɑbəldiˌɡʊk]
-
- Noun:
- incomprehensible or pompous jargon of specialists
Word Origin
- gobbledygook (n.)
- also gobbledegook, "the overinvolved, pompous talk of officialdom" [Klein], 1944, American English, first used by U.S. Rep. Maury Maverick, D.-Texas, (1895-1954), a grandson of the original maverick and chairman of U.S. Smaller War Plants Corporation during World War II, in a memo dated March 30, 1944, banning "gobbledygook language" and mock-threateaning, "anyone using the words activation or implementation will be shot." Maverick said he made up the word in imitation of turkey noise. Another word for it, coined about the same time, was bafflegab (1952).
Example
- 1. If this sounds like gobbledygook , it kind of is .
- 2. All he did was give us a load of gobbledygook .
- 3. His pen sometimes runs away with him : it is silly to call a language " gobbledygook " ( as he terms estonian ) just because you don 't understand it .
- 4. ' Prince of persia : the sands of time ' : overloaded with special effects and fairy-tale gobbledygook .
- 5. The stern book may be careful to avoid academic gobbledygook and complex equations , but it cannot be described as a light read .