Gobbledygook
Encyclopedia
Gobbledygook or gobbledegook (sometimes gobbledegoo) is any text containing jargon
or especially convoluted English that results in it being excessively hard to understand or even incomprehensible
. "Bureaucratese" is one form of gobbledygook.
chairman of the US Congress Smaller War Plants Committee. He was being critical of the obscure language used by other committee members. The allusion was to a turkey, “always gobbledy gobbling and strutting with ludicrous pomposity”. It is sometimes abbreviated slightly to gobbledygoo.
from June 14 shows H. R. Haldeman
describing the situation to Nixon.
President Ronald Reagan
explained tax law revisions in an address to the nation, 28 May 1985:
, characterizes professional gobbledygook as sloppy jargon intended to confuse nonspecialists:
sitcom
Blackadder Goes Forth
, set in 1917 (27 years before the word was first used), the character General Melchett
declares that he likes the term and wants to "use it more often in conversation". In another British series, Robin Hood
, set in the beginning of the 15th century, the Sheriff of Nottingham
, Vaisey, uses the term to refer to Latin, in those days commonly used in the church. In the film The Green Mile
, character Paul Edgecombe replies to his wife Jan, "Oh, you know doctors - gobbledygook mostly." The film version of The Green Mile is set in 1935, 9 years before the word's creation.
In the film Carry On Regardless
, the landlord to the Helping Hands offices speaks in gobbledygook, causing a misunderstanding until one of the Helping Hands meets him and can translate.
In the "How to Irritate People
" airplane sketch by Monty Python
, gobbledygook is used as a way of frightening passengers in an airplane.
Former Irish tennis star Bryan Crowley when describing his chat with the two Danish heroes abroad in San Luis Obispo :"Them Danish lads have perfect English, but when they speak their own language it sounds like a haype of Gobblydegook."
The term has also been used as a name for various fictional characters, albums, etc. In the video game Final Fantasy VI
there is an enemy named Gobbledygook. The British children's show Alphabet Castle
has a character called Gobbledygook the turkey, who always gets his words and letters jumbled up. Gobbledegook was a goblin
comic character semi-regularly appearing in his own column in the fantasy gaming magazine White Dwarf
until about issue 100. In a similar vein, the "Harry Potter
" series names Gobbledegook as the language of the stories' version of goblins. "The Gobbledy Gooker" was a character in the World Wrestling Federation's Survivor Series
, who "hatched" from an egg and then proceeded to dance with the announcer in the ring; widely considered one of the worst gimmicks created by wrestling fans, it inspired the now-annual WrestleCrap
Award for worst gimmick of the year. "Gobbledigook" is also the first single from Iceland
ic post-rock
band Sigur Rós
's album Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust
.
During World War Two Eleanora Wenz Anderson while working as an illustrator in California designed a character to illustrate the term. The character resembled a caricature of Woody Woodpecker
with an exaggerated top knot.
A Progressive Insurance commercial in the United States contains the word "gobbledygook."
, other common idioms indicating difficulty in understanding complicated language are: "It is all Greek
to me" or "talking double Dutch
". For complicated written language, a common expression is that something is "written in hieroglyphics". Bafflegab
is a synonym
.
In the midwestern region of the United States, it is also the name for a popular breakfast dish made up of eggs, bacon, and buttered toast mixed in a bowl together and served with toast on the side.
Jargon
Jargon is terminology which is especially defined in relationship to a specific activity, profession, group, or event. The philosophe Condillac observed in 1782 that "Every science requires a special language because every science has its own ideas." As a rationalist member of the Enlightenment he...
or especially convoluted English that results in it being excessively hard to understand or even incomprehensible
Understanding
Understanding is a psychological process related to an abstract or physical object, such as a person, situation, or message whereby one is able to think about it and use concepts to deal adequately with that object....
. "Bureaucratese" is one form of gobbledygook.
Etymology
According to Michael Quinion on his World Wide Words website the word was first coined on 21 May 1944 by Maury Maverick, a lawyer from Texas. His comments, recorded in the New York Times Magazine, were made when Maverick was the DemocraticDemocratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
chairman of the US Congress Smaller War Plants Committee. He was being critical of the obscure language used by other committee members. The allusion was to a turkey, “always gobbledy gobbling and strutting with ludicrous pomposity”. It is sometimes abbreviated slightly to gobbledygoo.
Watergate
Nixon's Oval Office tapeWatergate tapes
The Watergate tapes, a subset of the Nixon tapes, are a collection of recordings of conversations between Richard Nixon and his fellow conspirators plotting a break in to the Watergate Hotel. U.S. President Richard Nixon and various White House staff started communicating on February 1971 and...
from June 14 shows H. R. Haldeman
H. R. Haldeman
Harry Robbins "Bob" Haldeman was an American political aide and businessman, best known for his service as White House Chief of Staff to President Richard Nixon and for his role in events leading to the Watergate burglaries and the Watergate scandal – for which he was found guilty of conspiracy...
describing the situation to Nixon.
- "To the ordinary guy, all this is a bunch of gobbledygook. But out of the gobbledygook comes a very clear thing: you can't trust the government; you can't believe what they say; and you can't rely on their judgment. And the implicit infallibility of presidents, which has been an accepted thing in America, is badly hurt by this, because it shows that people do things the President wants to do even though it's wrong, and the President can be wrong."
Reagan's tax revisions
Former United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
President Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
explained tax law revisions in an address to the nation, 28 May 1985:
- "Most (tax revisions) didn’t improve the system, they made it more like Washington itself: complicated, unfair, cluttered with gobbledygook and loopholes designed for those with the power and influence to hire high-priced legal and tax advisers."
Michael Shanks
Michael Shanks, former chairman to the National Consumer Council of Great BritainGreat Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
, characterizes professional gobbledygook as sloppy jargon intended to confuse nonspecialists:
- "Gobbledygook may indicate a failure to think clearly, a contempt for one's clients, or more probably a mixture of both. A system that can't or won't communicate is not a safe basis for a democracy."
Cultural influence
The word has been used anachronistically in fiction set before the invention of the term. For example, in the BritishUnited Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
sitcom
Situation comedy
A situation comedy, often shortened to sitcom, is a genre of comedy that features characters sharing the same common environment, such as a home or workplace, accompanied with jokes as part of the dialogue...
Blackadder Goes Forth
Blackadder Goes Forth
Blackadder Goes Forth is the fourth and final series of the BBC situation comedy Blackadder, written by Richard Curtis and Ben Elton, which aired from 28 September to 2 November 1989 on BBC One....
, set in 1917 (27 years before the word was first used), the character General Melchett
Melchett
Melchett is a family line of fictional characters appearing in the British television sitcom series Blackadder, played by Stephen Fry. There were two main Melchetts: Lord Melchett and General Melchett.- Blackadder II :...
declares that he likes the term and wants to "use it more often in conversation". In another British series, Robin Hood
Robin Hood
Robin Hood was a heroic outlaw in English folklore. A highly skilled archer and swordsman, he is known for "robbing from the rich and giving to the poor", assisted by a group of fellow outlaws known as his "Merry Men". Traditionally, Robin Hood and his men are depicted wearing Lincoln green clothes....
, set in the beginning of the 15th century, the Sheriff of Nottingham
Sheriff of Nottingham
The Sheriff of Nottingham was historically the office responsible for enforcing law and order in Nottingham and bringing criminals to justice. For years the post has been directly appointed by the Lord Mayor of Nottingham and in modern times, with the existence of the police force, the position is...
, Vaisey, uses the term to refer to Latin, in those days commonly used in the church. In the film The Green Mile
The Green Mile (film)
The Green Mile is a 1999 American drama film directed by Frank Darabont and adapted by him from the 1996 Stephen King novel of the same name...
, character Paul Edgecombe replies to his wife Jan, "Oh, you know doctors - gobbledygook mostly." The film version of The Green Mile is set in 1935, 9 years before the word's creation.
In the film Carry On Regardless
Carry On Regardless
Carry on Regardless was the fifth in the series of Carry On films to be made. It was released in 1961. By now a fairly regular team was established with Sid James, Kenneth Connor, Charles Hawtrey, Joan Sims and Kenneth Williams all having appeared in previous entries. Hattie Jacques - who was...
, the landlord to the Helping Hands offices speaks in gobbledygook, causing a misunderstanding until one of the Helping Hands meets him and can translate.
In the "How to Irritate People
How to Irritate People
How to Irritate People is a 1968 television broadcast written by John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Marty Feldman and Tim Brooke-Taylor. Cleese, Chapman, and Brooke-Taylor also feature in it, along with future Monty Python collaborators Michael Palin and Connie Booth.In various sketches, Cleese...
" airplane sketch by Monty Python
Monty Python
Monty Python was a British surreal comedy group who created their influential Monty Python's Flying Circus, a British television comedy sketch show that first aired on the BBC on 5 October 1969. Forty-five episodes were made over four series...
, gobbledygook is used as a way of frightening passengers in an airplane.
Former Irish tennis star Bryan Crowley when describing his chat with the two Danish heroes abroad in San Luis Obispo :"Them Danish lads have perfect English, but when they speak their own language it sounds like a haype of Gobblydegook."
The term has also been used as a name for various fictional characters, albums, etc. In the video game Final Fantasy VI
Final Fantasy VI
is a role-playing video game developed and published by Square , released in 1994 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System as a part of the Final Fantasy series. Set in a fantasy world with a technology level equivalent to that of the Second Industrial Revolution, the game's story focuses on a...
there is an enemy named Gobbledygook. The British children's show Alphabet Castle
Alphabet Castle
Alphabet Castle was an educational children's television program produced in the UK. It began in September 1993 with a series of 27 episodes aired on ITV Carlton, and ran until December 1995 and later shown on CBeebies and the CITV Channel in 2006 and 2007. It had three main characters: King...
has a character called Gobbledygook the turkey, who always gets his words and letters jumbled up. Gobbledegook was a goblin
Goblin
A goblin is a legendary evil or mischievous illiterate creature, a grotesquely evil or evil-like phantom.They are attributed with various abilities, temperaments and appearances depending on the story and country of origin. In some cases, goblins have been classified as constantly annoying little...
comic character semi-regularly appearing in his own column in the fantasy gaming magazine White Dwarf
White Dwarf (magazine)
White Dwarf is a magazine published by British games manufacturer Games Workshop. Initially covering a wide variety of fantasy and science-fiction role-playing and board games, particularly the role playing games Dungeons & Dragons, RuneQuest and Traveller...
until about issue 100. In a similar vein, the "Harry Potter
Harry Potter
Harry Potter is a series of seven fantasy novels written by the British author J. K. Rowling. The books chronicle the adventures of the adolescent wizard Harry Potter and his best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, all of whom are students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry...
" series names Gobbledegook as the language of the stories' version of goblins. "The Gobbledy Gooker" was a character in the World Wrestling Federation's Survivor Series
Survivor Series
The Survivor Series is an annual professional wrestling pay-per-view event held in November by WWE. It is one of the "Big Four" events, along with WrestleMania, Royal Rumble and SummerSlam, as It is one of the original four pay-per-views produced by WWE....
, who "hatched" from an egg and then proceeded to dance with the announcer in the ring; widely considered one of the worst gimmicks created by wrestling fans, it inspired the now-annual WrestleCrap
WrestleCrap
WrestleCrap is a professional wrestling website created by RD Reynolds and Merle Vincent , serving as a "hall of shame" for some of the worst gimmicks and storylines in pro wrestling history...
Award for worst gimmick of the year. "Gobbledigook" is also the first single from Iceland
Iceland
Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...
ic post-rock
Post-rock
Post-rock is a subgenre of rock music characterized by the influence and use of instruments commonly associated with rock, but using rhythms and "guitars as facilitators of timbre and textures" not traditionally found in rock...
band Sigur Rós
Sigur Rós
Sigur Rós is an Icelandic post-rock band with classicaland minimalist elements. The band is known for its ethereal sound, and frontman Jónsi Birgisson's falsetto vocals and use of bowed guitar. In January 2010, the band announced that they will be on hiatus. Since then, it has since been announced...
's album Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust
Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust
-Track listing:-Personnel:* Jón Þór Birgisson – vocals, guitar* Kjartan Sveinsson – keyboards* Georg Hólm – bass* Orri Páll Dýrason – drumsStrings: Amiina...
.
During World War Two Eleanora Wenz Anderson while working as an illustrator in California designed a character to illustrate the term. The character resembled a caricature of Woody Woodpecker
Woody Woodpecker
Woody Woodpecker is an animated cartoon character, an anthropomorphic acorn woodpecker who appeared in theatrical short films produced by the Walter Lantz animation studio and distributed by Universal Pictures...
with an exaggerated top knot.
A Progressive Insurance commercial in the United States contains the word "gobbledygook."
Other terms
In EnglishEnglish language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, other common idioms indicating difficulty in understanding complicated language are: "It is all Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
to me" or "talking double Dutch
Double Dutch
Double Dutch may refer to:* Double Dutch , a children's game* Double Dutch, a language game primarily used in English:**Tutnese**Ubbi dubbi**Izzle* Double Dutch , a writing style used by John O'Mill...
". For complicated written language, a common expression is that something is "written in hieroglyphics". Bafflegab
Bafflegab
Bafflegab [baf-uhl-gab] is a slang term referring to confusing or generally unintelligible jargon. .The word was defined by its inventor, Milton A Smith, as "multiloquence characterized by consummate interfusion of circumlocution or periphrasis, inscrutability, and other familiar manifestations of...
is a synonym
Synonym
Synonyms are different words with almost identical or similar meanings. Words that are synonyms are said to be synonymous, and the state of being a synonym is called synonymy. The word comes from Ancient Greek syn and onoma . The words car and automobile are synonyms...
.
In the midwestern region of the United States, it is also the name for a popular breakfast dish made up of eggs, bacon, and buttered toast mixed in a bowl together and served with toast on the side.
Similar notions in other languages
- In Turkish, the speaker says "Bu konuya Fransız kaldım." (I remained French against this topic.) when he or she doesn't possibly understand the topic.
- The Finnish corresponding term is kapulakieli (cudgel language), referring to haughty, high-spirited and unintelligible office language.
- In French, the slang word for gobbledygook is "le charabia". It is used informally in conversations.
- Germans call it "technical Chinese" (Fachchinesisch).
- In Spanish, you can say "hablar en chino" (speaking Chinese).
- In GreekGreek languageGreek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
, when one talks with nonsensical, specialized or generally uncommon word choices, he is said to speak in Arabic ("Alhambranese") (αλαμπουρνέζικα, alambournezika). The equivalent phrase to the English "It's all Greek to me!" is "You're speaking Chinese (κινέζικα, ki'nezika)!" - In Hungarian, the term "it's Chinese for me" (nekem ez kínai) is used if the listener/reader cannot catch the meaning (especially when dealing with technical, legal or office texts). Another term for talks which are gibberish, or are composed grammatically correctly but are flooded with words hard/impossible to understand, is halandzsa (which is a meaningless word created for meaningful-sounding but actually meaningless talk). For the complicated bureaucracy language, the term "beech tree language" (bikkfanyelv) is used but mostly in literary or elaborated contexts.
- In Italian, the term used is "to speak Arabic" (parlare arabo). "Politichese" (political jargon) and "Burocratese" (bureaucracy jargon) are also widely used. The term "supercazzola" can be used too; it comes from the movie Amici mieiAmici mieiMy Friends is a 1975 Italian comedy-drama film directed by Mario Monicelli.The film, which made it to number one on the Italian box-office in front of Steven Spielberg's Jaws, was followed by two sequels, Amici miei Atto II , Amici miei Atto III , directed by Nanni Loy.-Plot:Like in many other...
, where it refers to a prank consisting of a series of meaningless, fast-spoken phrases; the word itself is meaningless. - PortuguesePortuguese languagePortuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
speakers describe a person speaking incomprehensibly as talking Greek (estou a falar grego?), Latin (isto para mim é latim) or Chinese (eu falei chinês?). - Three similar-meaning words appear in Russian: "Beliberda" (Белиберда), "Tarabarshchina" (Тарабарщина) and "Abracadabra" (Абракадабра). Grammatically, they work in a similar way to a language, and refer to nonsense talk. In addition, the phrase "kitaiskaya gramota" (Китайская грамота, "Chinese writing") is used.
- In colloquial Arabic, when someone talks that way he is referred as "speaking in Indian". In Levantine ArabicLevantine ArabicLevantine Arabic is a broad variety of Arabic spoken in the 100 to 200 km-wide Eastern Mediterranean coastal strip...
dialects and some other Arabic dialects, people explicitly refer to SanskritSanskritSanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
as a "non-sense language".
See also
- JargonJargonJargon is terminology which is especially defined in relationship to a specific activity, profession, group, or event. The philosophe Condillac observed in 1782 that "Every science requires a special language because every science has its own ideas." As a rationalist member of the Enlightenment he...
- Legalese
- MojibakeMojibake, from the Japanese 文字 "character" + 化け "change", is the occurrence of incorrect, unreadable characters shown when computer software fails to render text correctly according to its associated character encoding.-Causes:...
— Random nonsense characters generated by foreign text - Malarchaeology
- NewspeakNewspeakNewspeak is a fictional language in George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. In the novel, it refers to the deliberately impoverished language promoted by the state. Orwell included an essay about it in the form of an appendix in which the basic principles of the language are explained...
- NonsenseNonsenseNonsense is a communication, via speech, writing, or any other symbolic system, that lacks any coherent meaning. Sometimes in ordinary usage, nonsense is synonymous with absurdity or the ridiculous...
- SimlishSimlishSimlish is a fictional language featured in EA Games' Sim series of games. It debuted in SimCopter, and has been especially prominent in The Sims, The Sims 2 and The Sims 3. The Sims development team created the unique Simlish language by experimenting with fractured Ukrainian, French, Latin,...
- SMOG (Simple Measure Of Gobbledygook)SMOG (Simple Measure Of Gobbledygook)SMOG is a readability formula that estimates the years of education needed to understand a piece of writing. SMOG is widely used, particularly for checking health messages. The SMOG formula yields a 0.985 correlation with a standard error of 1.5159 grades with the grades of readers who had 100%...
- Sokal affairSokal AffairThe Sokal affair, also known as the Sokal hoax, was a publishing hoax perpetrated by Alan Sokal, a physics professor at New York University. In 1996, Sokal submitted an article to Social Text, an academic journal of postmodern cultural studies...
- Stanley Unwin (comedian)Stanley Unwin (comedian)Stanley Unwin , sometimes billed as Professor Stanley Unwin, was a British comedian and comic writer, and the inventor of his own language, "Unwinese", referred to in the film Carry On Regardless as "gobbledegook".Unwinese was a mangled form of English in which many of the...
- TechnobabbleTechnobabbleTechnobabble , also called technospeak, is a form of prose using jargon, buzzwords, esoteric language, specialized technical terms, or technical slang that is incomprehensible to the listener...