gibberish

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   speech or writing that is unintelligible, incoherent, or meaningless

   The corrupted file displayed a page of gibberish instead of readable text.

2. 2
   noun

   language dismissed as needlessly obscure or excessively technical

   Without an explanation, the legal terminology sounded like gibberish to me.

Attested from the mid-16th century, but its origin is uncertain. It may imitate rapid, unintelligible chatter and may have been influenced by jabber; the ending -ish makes it sound like the name of a language. The verb gibber may be a later back-formation.

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