Definition:
Inflated, jargon-cluttered prose that fails to communicate clearly. See also:
Etymology:
Coined in 1944 by Maury Maverick, a Texas lawyer, in a memorandum expressing disdain for the "gobbledygook language" of his colleagues. The word was inspired, he said, by the turkey, "always gobbledy gobbling and strutting with ludicrous pomposity."Examples and Observations:
- "Gobbledygook or bureaucratese is another kind of doublespeak. Such doublespeak is simply a matter of overwhelming the audience with technical, unfamiliar words. When asked why U.S. forces lacked intelligence information on Grenada before they invaded the island in 1983, Admiral Wesley L. McDonald told reporters that 'We were not micromanaging Grenada intelligence-wise until about that time frame.'"
(William Lutz, "The World of Doublespeak," 1989) - "To the ordinary guy, all this is 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, and you can't rely on their judgment."
(H.R. Haldeman, recording made in the Oval Office, June 14, 1971) - "Oh, meltdown. It's one of those annoying buzzwords. We prefer to call it an unrequested fission surplus."
(Charles Montgomery Burns in "Homer Defined," The Simpsons) - "Where the combined value of the above payments before actual assimilation remains greater than the combined value of the payments after assimilation, the former level of pay will be protected. These protection arrangements apply to the combined value of payments before and after assimilation, not to individual pay components, excepting the provision relating to retention of existing on-call arrangements."
("Agenda for Change," Central Manchester and Manchester Children’s University Hospitals NHS Trust, 2005)
Pronunciation: GOB-ul-dee-GOOK
Also Known As: bafflegab
