Word – Gobbledygook

Gobbledygook – Word of the Day

Meaning:

Language that is meaningless or is made unintelligible by excessive use of technical terms.

Origin:

The term gobbledygook was coined by Maury Maverick, a former congressman from Texas and former mayor of San Antonio. When Maverick was chairman of the Smaller War Plants Corporation during World War II, he sent a memorandum that said: “Be short and use plain English. … Stay off gobbledygook language.” Maverick defined gobbledygook as “talk or writing which is long, pompous, vague, involved, usually with Latinized words.” The allusion was to a turkey, “always gobbledygobbling and strutting with ridiculous pomposity.”

Usage:

1. Enough with this gobbledygook and explain it in simple English! How much do I owe in taxes?
2. Oh come on Humphrey, stop spewing this gobbledygook and tell me whether I should support this policy or not. 
3. One of the many criticisms of the new constitution was that it was too hard to understand; that it was essentially gobbledygook.
4. Filling up your essay with abstruse gobbledygook will not win you points with your professor. So don’t try to impress him in that way.
5. I tried attending law school, but the professors were simply spouting gobbledygook. I couldn’t understand a word.