GOBBLEDYGOOK

views updated Jun 08 2018

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.

gobbledygook

views updated Jun 27 2018

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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