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GOBBLEDYGOOK
GOBBLEDYGOOK, also gobbledegook. A pejorative and facetious term for pretentious and opaque JARGON; inflated language: ‘Just before Pearl Harbor, I got my baptism under “gobbledygook”… its definition: talk or writing which is long, pompous, vague, involved, usually with Latinized words’ ( Maury Maverick, New York Times Magazine, 21 May 1944). For examples of the kind of pretentious and opaque usage often classed as gobbledygook, see BAFFLEGAB, BUREAUCRATESE, DOUBLESPEAK, PLAIN, PLAIN ENGLISH.
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Cite this article
TOM McARTHUR. "GOBBLEDYGOOK." Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language. 1998. Encyclopedia.com. 29 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. TOM McARTHUR. "GOBBLEDYGOOK." Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language. 1998. Encyclopedia.com. (May 29, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O29-GOBBLEDYGOOK.html TOM McARTHUR. "GOBBLEDYGOOK." Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language. 1998. Retrieved May 29, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O29-GOBBLEDYGOOK.html |
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gobbledygook
gob·ble·dy·gook / ˈgäbəldēˌgoŏk; -ˌgoōk/ (also gob·ble·de·gook) • n. inf. language that is meaningless or is made unintelligible by excessive use of abstruse technical terms; nonsense. |
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Cite this article
"gobbledygook." The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English. 2009. Encyclopedia.com. 29 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "gobbledygook." The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English. 2009. Encyclopedia.com. (May 29, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O999-gobbledygook.html "gobbledygook." The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English. 2009. Retrieved May 29, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O999-gobbledygook.html |
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