Gibberish
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Gibberish is a generic term in English for talking that sounds like speech, but has no actual meaning (such as "the mave's rint ist slanpehed up uthep yongrish"). This meaning has also been extended to meaningless text or gobbledygook, such as "yrudnvncdkeggsuwigdllvmbk". The common theme in gibberish statements is a lack of literal sense, which can also be described as a presence of nonsense.
A family of language games in English are sometimes referred to as "Gibberish".
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[edit] Origin of the term
The term is first seen in English in the early 16th century [1]. There are two common theories of origin for the term "gibberish". One says that the basis is in the old word "gibber" which is allied to "jabber". However, the use of "gibberish" is recorded before the use of "gibber", which weakens this theory. A second explanation says the word comes from the name of the eighth-century alchemist Jaber ibn Hayyan, who invented a strange terminology so that his works could not be understood by others, thus protecting himself against charges of heresy[citation needed].
Despite its putative etymology, the word "gibberish" today is used to describe something which has no merit or makes no sense. (For example, "That's just a lot of gibberish.")
[edit] See also
- Asdf
- Lorem ipsum
- Nonsense
- Scat singing
- Simlish
- Mumbo Jumbo (phrase)
- Jabberwocky — English poem written in nonsense
[edit] External link
[edit] References
- ^ Chantrell, Glynnis (2002). The Oxford Dictionary of Word Histories. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 231.
