gobbledygook

English

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gobbledygook

Wikipedia

Alternative forms

• gobbledegook; gobblygook, garbley gook, gobbly-gook

Etymology

First attested in a memo by US Representative (Texas) Maury Maverick dated March 30, 1944, banning "gobbledygook language". Apparently coined in imitation of the sounds made by a turkey.

Pronunciation

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

gobbledygook (usually uncountable, plural gobbledygooks)

1. (informal) Nonsense; meaningless or encrypted language.
2. (informal) Something written in an overly complex, incoherent, or incomprehensible manner.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:nonsense

Derived terms

• gobbledygooker

Translations

nonsense; meaningless or encrypted language

Chinese: Mandarin: 天書／天书 (zh) (tiānshū) Czech: hatmatilka (cs) f Danish: bavl n, kaudervælsk (da) n, sludder n, vrøvl n Dutch: koeterwaals (nl) n Esperanto: galimatio Finnish: liirumlaarum (fi), diibadaaba (fi), hölynpöly (fi) French: charabia (fr) m, gloubi-boulga (fr) m German: Geschwafel (de) n, Kauderwelsch (de) n, Gibberisch n, Gromolo n Hungarian: halandzsa (hu), maszlag (hu), blabla (hu), hadova (hu), hablaty (hu) Italian: fesserie f pl, sciocchezze (it) f pl, supercazzola (it), idiozie (it) f pl Japanese: 珍紛漢紛 (chinpunkanpun) Maori: reo kihi Norwegian: Bokmål: tullprat m, vrøvl (no) n Nynorsk: kaudervelsk m, galimatias n Polish: bełkot (pl) m Portuguese: algaravia (pt) f Russian: галиматья́ (ru) f (galimatʹjá) Serbo-Croatian: galimatijas (sh) m, lupetanje (sh) n Swedish: gallimatias (sv), rappakalja (sv), dravel (sv), struntprat (sv), goja (sv), strunt (sv)

something written or said in an overly complex, incoherent, or incomprehensible manner

Finnish: kapulakieli (fi) French: galimatias (fr) m German: Fachchinesisch (de) n, geschwollenes Zeug n (not idiomatic), aufgeblasenes Gesülze n (not idiomatic) Hungarian: bikkfanyelv (hu) Italian: burocratese (it) Maori: reo kihi Swedish: fikonspråk (sv), högtravande kanslistil