Etymology

The etymology of gibberish is uncertain. The term was first seen in English in the early 16th century.[4] It
is generally thought to be an onomatopoeia imitative of speech, similar to the words jabber (to talk
rapidly) and gibber (to speak inarticulately).[5][6]

It may originate from the word jib, which is the Angloromani variant of the Romani language word
meaning "language" or "tongue". To non-speakers, the Anglo-Romany dialect could sound like English
mixed with nonsense words, and if those seemingly-nonsensical words are referred to as jib then the
term gibberish (pronounced "jibberish") could be derived as a descriptor for nonsensical speech.
Another theory is that gibberish came from the name of a famous 8th century Arabian alchemist, Jābir
ibn Hayyān, whose name was Latinized as Geber. Thus, gibberish was a reference to the
incomprehensible technical jargon and allegorical coded language used by Jabir and other
alchemists.[7][8][9]

A discredited alternative theory asserts that it is derived from the Irish word gob or gab ("mouth")[10] or
from the Irish phrase Geab ar ais ("back talk, backward chat").[11] The latter Irish etymology was
suggested by Daniel Cassidy, whose work has been criticised by linguists and scholars.[12][13][14] The
terms geab and geabaire are certainly Irish words, but the phrase geab ar ais does not exist, and the
word gibberish exists as a loan-word in Irish as gibiris.[15]

The term gobbledygook was coined by Maury Maverick, a former congressman from Texas and former
mayor of San Antonio.[16] When Maverick was chairman of the Smaller War Plants Corporation during
World War II, he sent a memorandum that said: "Be short and use plain English. ... Stay off
gobbledygook language."[17][18] Maverick defined gobbledygook as "talk or writing which is long,
pompous, vague, involved, usually with Latinized words." The allusion was to a turkey, "always
gobbledygobbling and strutting with ridiculous pomposity."[19][20]

Use

Gobbledygook

The term "gobbledygook" has a long history of usage in politics. Nixon's Oval Office tape from June 14,
1971, showed H. R. Haldeman describing a situation to Nixon as "... 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."[21] President Ronald Reagan explained tax law revisions in an address to the nation with the word,
May 28, 1985, saying that "most 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."[22] In 2017, US Supreme Court justice John Roberts
dismissed quantitative sociological reasoning as "gobbledygook" in arguing against any numerical test
for gerrymandering.[23]

Michael Shanks, former chairman to the National Consumer Council of Great Britain, 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."[24]