Editing Gibberish (section)

==Etymology==
The [[etymology]] of ''gibberish'' is uncertain. The term was seen in English in the early 16th&nbsp;century.<ref>{{cite book |last=Chantrell |first=Glynnis |title=The Oxford Dictionary of Word Histories |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2002 |location=Oxford, UK |pages=[https://archive.org/details/oxforddictionary0000unse_x2z7/page/231 231] |isbn=0-19-863121-9 |url=https://archive.org/details/oxforddictionary0000unse_x2z7/page/231 }}</ref> It is generally thought to be an [[onomatopoeia]] imitative of speech, similar to the words ''jabber'' (to talk rapidly) and ''gibber'' (to speak inarticulately).<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |year=2013 |title=gibberish |encyclopedia=Oxford English Dictionary |edition=online |publisher=Oxford University Press}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Online Etymology Dictionary |url=http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=gibberish |access-date=6 February 2014}}</ref>

It may originate from the word ''[[wikt:jib|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'' could be derived as a descriptor for nonsensical speech.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Leland |first1=Charles G. |title=The English Gipsies and Their Language |date=1873 |publisher=Hurd and Houghton |location=New York |page=88 |url=https://archive.org/details/englishgipsiesa00lelagoog/page/n109 |quote=If the word gibberish was, as has been asserted, first applied to the language of the Gipsies, it may have been derived either from “Gip,” the nickname for Gipsy, with ish or rish appended as in Engl-ish, I-rish, or from the Rommany word jib signifying a language. . . . Writers on such subjects err, almost without an exception, in insisting on one accurately defined and singly derived source for every word, when perhaps three or four have combined to form it. . . . Gibberish may have come from the Gipsy, and at the same time owe something to gabble, jabber, and the old Norse or Icelandic gifra.}}</ref>

[[Samuel Johnson]], in ''[[A Dictionary of the English Language]]'', published in 1755, wrote that the word gibberish "is probably derived from the chymical cant, and originally implied the jargon of Geber and his tribe." The theory was that ''gibberish'' came from the name of a famous 8th&nbsp;century Muslim alchemist, [[Jābir ibn Hayyān]], whose name was [[List of Latinised names|Latinized]] as ''Geber''. Thus, ''gibberish'' was a reference to the incomprehensible technical [[jargon]] and allegorical coded language used by Jabir and other [[Alchemy|alchemists]].<ref>{{cite journal |first=Glenn T. |last=Seaborg |title=Our heritage of the elements |journal=Metallurgical and Materials Transactions B |publisher=[[Springer Science+Business Media|Springer Boston]] |volume=11 |issue=1 |date=March 1980 |pages=5–19 |doi=10.1007/bf02657166|bibcode=1980MTB....11....5S |s2cid=137614510 }}</ref><ref name="WonderfulWord">{{cite book |url=http://www.randomhouse.co.uk/editions/its-a-wonderful-word-the-real-origins-of-our-favourite-words/9781446456095 |title=It's a Wonderful Word: The Real Origins of Our Favourite Words |publisher=Random House UK |author=Jack, Albert |year=2011 |location=London, UK |isbn=978-1847946690 |access-date=2015-06-28 |archive-date=2015-07-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150701075141/http://www.randomhouse.co.uk/editions/its-a-wonderful-word-the-real-origins-of-our-favourite-words/9781446456095 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Quinion |first1=Michael |title=Gibberish|url=http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-gib2.htm |website=World Wide Words |access-date=20 January 2016 |date=3 Oct 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Amr |first1=Samir S. |last2=Tbakhi |first2=Abdelghani |title=Jabir ibn Hayyan |journal=Annals of Saudi Medicine |pages=52–53 |doi=10.5144/0256-4947.2007.53 |date=2007|volume=27 |issue=1 |pmc=6077026 }}</ref> After 1818, editors of [[A Dictionary of the English Language|Johnson's Dictionary]] rejected that origin theory.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Kolb |first1=Gwin J. |last2=Demaria | first2=Robert Jr. |title=Dr. Johnson's etymology of 'gibberish' |url=https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Dr.+Johnson%27s+etymology+of+%27gibberish.%27.-a055015215 |website=The Free Library |publisher=Oxford University Press |access-date=15 July 2021 |date=1998 |quote=This remark was apparently repeated in all the unabridged versions of Johnson's Dictionary until 1818, when H. J. Todd published his revised edition of the work. Under the entry for gibberish, Todd records 'Dr. Johnson's' comments on the word's etymology and then offers evidence differing from Johnson's surmise and none supporting it.}}</ref>

A discredited alternative theory asserts that it is derived from the [[Irish language|Irish]] word ''gob'' or ''gab'' ("mouth")<ref>{{cite book |last=Mackay |first=Charles |title=A Glossary of Obscure Words and Phrases in the Writings of Shakspeare and his contemporaries Traced Etymologically to the ancient language of the British people as spoken before the irruption of the Danes and Saxons |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RCingf_1px0C&pg=PA183 |access-date=5 February 2014|year=1887 |publisher=S. Low, Marston, Searle, and Rivington |pages=183–184}}</ref> or from the Irish phrase ''Geab ar ais'' ("back talk, backward chat").<ref>{{cite book |last=Cassidy |first=Daniel |title=How the Irish Invented Slang: The secret language of the crossroads |year=2007 |publisher=CounterPunch |isbn=978-1-904859-60-4 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/howirishinvented0000cass/page/155 155–156] |chapter=A Dictionary of Irish-American Vernacular |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/howirishinvented0000cass/page/155 }}</ref> The latter Irish etymology was suggested by Daniel Cassidy, whose work has been criticised by linguists and scholars.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Brady |first=Michael Patrick |title=''How the Irish Invented Slang'' |url=http://www.popmatters.com/review/how-the-irish-invented-slang-by-daniel-cassidy/ |magazine=PopMatters |date=17 October 2007 |access-date=2014-03-24 |df=dmy-all}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Barrett |first=Grant |title=Humdinger of a Bad Irish Scholar |url=http://grantbarrett.com/humdinger-of-a-bad-irish-scholar |date=9 November 2007 |access-date=2014-03-24 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130927075013/http://grantbarrett.com/humdinger-of-a-bad-irish-scholar |archive-date=2013-09-27 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Zwicky |first=Arnold |title=Gullibility in high places |url=http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/005098.html |publisher=Language Log |date=9 November 2007 |access-date=2014-03-24 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> 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''.<ref>{{cite book |title=Foclóir Gaeilge-Béarla |year=1992 |publisher=An Gúm |isbn=978-1-85791-037-7 |page=630 |df=dmy-all}}</ref>

The term ''gobbledygook'' was coined by [[Maury Maverick]], a former congressman from Texas and former mayor of San Antonio.<ref>{{cite AV media |url=http://www.waywordradio.org/maverick-and-gobbledygook-minicast |title=Maverick and Gobbledygook (minicast) |series=A Way with Words |access-date=2017-01-28 |medium=audio |df=dmy-all}}</ref> When Maverick was chairman of the Smaller War Plants Corporation during World War&nbsp;II, he sent a memorandum that said: "Be short and use plain English. ... Stay off gobbledygook language."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Maverick |first1=Maury |title=Memorandum from Maury Maverick to Everybody in Smaller War Plants Corporation |url=https://catalog.archives.gov/id/7788338 |website=The National Archives Catalog |publisher=US National Archives and Records Administration |access-date=21 January 2016 |date=24 March 1944 |quote=Subject: Lengthy memoranda and gobbledygook language. Be short and use plain English. |df=dmy-all |archive-date=6 May 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160506212831/https://catalog.archives.gov/id/7788338 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1144&dat=19440331&id=LwkeAAAAIBAJ&pg=6649,4291444 |title=Gobbledygook? Lay off it, Maverick says |date=31 March 1944 |newspaper=[[Pittsburgh Press]] |access-date=4 February 2014 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> Maverick defined ''gobbledygook'' as "talk or writing which is long, pompous, vague, involved, usually with Latinized words." The allusion was to a [[Turkey (bird)|turkey]], "always gobbledygobbling and strutting with ridiculous pomposity."<ref>{{cite news |last1=Maverick |first1=Maury |title=The case against 'Gobbledygook' |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9B00E1D91331E03BBC4951DFB366838F659EDE |access-date=20 January 2016 |work=The New York Times |date=21 May 1944 |quote=People asked me how I got the word. I do not know. It must have come in a vision. Perhaps I was thinking of the old bearded turkey gobbler back in Texas who was always gobbledygobbling and strutting with ridiculous pomposity. At the end of his gobble there was a sort of gook. |df=dmy-all}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1499&dat=19850526&id=4GUaAAAAIBAJ&pg=1469,6217091 |title=Gobbledygood |last=Gartner |first=Michael |date=26 May 1985 |publisher=[[Milwaukee Journal]] |access-date=4 February 2014 |df=dmy-all }}{{Dead link|date=March 2022 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>