Gobbledygook and the Politician
Hello,
This week’s word is gobbledygook (also spelled gobbledegook) because I love the way it sounds, its meaning, and its obscure link to a favourite eponym of mine.
Gobbledygook is one of the English language’s many wonderful words for gibberish or nonsense. The language always seems to be particularly well-supplied with terms for deriding the foolish behaviour of others. You can draw your own conclusions on why that might be so. Gobbledygook is defined as “the over-involved, pompous talk of officialdom” so it’s a specific type of gibberish.
The reason why it refers to officialdom is explained when you take a look at its origins and history. Unlike most older words we can pin gobbledygook to a specific date when it joined the dictionary (the American English dictionary initially but it’s used in British English too), 1944. Although it was during World War II gobbledygook isn’t a military term, although I’m sure there was plenty of gobbledygook afoot in that arena at the time, as explained below.
Gobbledygook was first used by a Texan politician Maury Maverick (1895-1954) in a memo on the 30th of March 1944. He was the chair of the Smaller War Plants Corporation and he used the memo to ban “gobbledygook language”. He even threatened to shoot “anyone using the words activation or implementation”. He later explained he invented the word in imitation of the noises a turkey makes.
Photo by Randy Fath on Unsplash
Anybody who has read my book “How to Get Your Name in the Dictionary” about the amazing people whose names ended up in the English language may remember his grandfather, Samuel Augustus Maverick (1803-1870), a firebrand politician, rancher, and goldminer, who gave us the word maverick for a non-conformist and narrowly avoided death three times, including at the Alamo. There aren’t many families who have contributed two words to the dictionary.
Until next time happy reading, writing, and wordfooling,
Grace (@Wordfoolery)
p.s. this post contains affiliate links which make a small payment to the blog if you choose to purchase through them. #CommissionsEarned. Alternatively, you can use my digital tip jar.
