Gibberish
Gibberish (sometimes spelled Jibberish) is a generic term in English for talking that sounds like speech, but carries no actual meaning. This meaning has also been extended to meaningless text or gobbledygook. The common theme in gibberish statements is a lack of literal sense, which can be described as a presence of nonsense. One of the more famous examples of using gibberish in literature is the poem "Jabberwocky" by Lewis Carroll.
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[edit] Etymology
One etymology asserts it is derived from the root of the Irish word gob or gab (mouth), which the same source asserts is the root of jabber, gibber and gobble.[1] The word may derive from the word "jabber" ("to talk nonsense"), with the "-ish" suffix to signify a language; alternatively, the term gibberish may derive from the eclectic mix of English, Spanish, Hebrew, Hindi and Arabic spoken in the British territory of Gibraltar (from Arabic Gabal-Tariq, meaning Mountain of Tariq), which is unintelligible to non-natives.
The term was first seen in English in the early 16th century.[2] Another theory is that the word comes from the name of the famous 8th-century Islamic alchemist Jābir ibn Hayyān, whose name was Latinized as "Geber", thus the term "gibberish" arose as a reference to the incomprehensible technical jargon often used by Jabir and other alchemists who followed.[3]
[edit] Usage
Utilizing gibberish whilst acting can be used as an exercise in performance art education.[4]
[edit] Cultural References
Glee stars Mark Salling and Lea Michele are known to frequently converse in gibberish.[5]
[edit] See also
- Babbling
- Doublespeak
- Double Dutch (writing style)
- Glossolalia
- Gobbledygook
- Grammelot
- The Ketchup Song
- Lorem ipsum
- Chacarron Macarron – song with (Spanish) nonsense lyrics
- Mojibake – random nonsense characters generated by mismatched character encodings
- Mumbo jumbo (phrase)
- Nonsense
- Nonsense word
- Scat singing
- Simlish
- Vonlenska – some is Gibberish
[edit] References
- ^ Mackay, Charles A Glossary of Obscure Words and Phrases in the Writings of Shakespeare and His Contemporaries, pp. 183-184, S. Low, Marston, Searle, and Rivington, 1887
- ^ Chantrell, Glynnis (2002). The Oxford Dictionary of Word Histories. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 231. ISBN 0198631219.
- ^ Seaborg, Glenn T. (March 1980). "Our heritage of the elements". Metallurgical and Materials Transactions B (Springer Boston) 11 (1): 5–19
- ^ Improvisation for the theater: a handbook of teaching and directing techniques. Viola Spolin. 1999.
- ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=X4aiyYsauC4, Ashley Fink on Glee.
[edit] Further reading
- "A Systematic Examination of Gibberish in a Multilingual Schizophrenic Patient". J. P. S. Robertson. Language and Speech, Vol. 2, No. 1, 1-8 (1959). DOI: 10.1177/002383095900200102
[edit] External links
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Look up gibberish in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
