gibberish

English

Etymology

First attested mid-16th century. Origin obscure. Possibly from *gibber, of onomatopoeic origin imitating to the sound of chatter, possibly from or influenced by jabber, +‎ -ish denoting the name of a language (compare English, Finnish, Spanish, etc.). The verb gibber, first attested circa 1600, is usually regarded as a back-formation from gibberish.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈd͡ʒɪb.ə.ɹɪʃ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

gibberish (usually uncountable, plural gibberishes)

1. Speech or writing that is unintelligible, incoherent or meaningless.
   • 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, chapter 12, in The Scarlet Letter, a Romance, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, →OCLC:

     Such gibberish as children may be heard amusing themselves with.

   • 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:

     Could it be, after all, that the whole story was true, and the writing on the sherd was not a forgery, or the invention of some crack-brained, long-forgotten individual? And if so, could it be that Leo was the man that She was waiting for - the dead man who was to be born again! Impossible! The whole thing was gibberish! Who ever heard of a man being born again?

   • 2022 December 31, Matteo Wong, “Hollywood’s Love Affair With Fictional Languages”, in The Atlantic:

     The Game of Thrones novels were best sellers without fleshed-out Dothraki; the languages in Star Wars, one of the most successful franchises ever, are mostly gibberish, even if Han Solo claims to understand Chewbacca’s bestial warbling.

2. Needlessly obscure or overly technical language.
3. (uncountable) A language game, comparable to pig Latin, in which one inserts a nonsense syllable before the first vowel in each syllable of a word.

Synonyms

• gibber
• See also Thesaurus:nonsense

Derived terms

• gibberishy

Translations

unintelligible speech or writing

• Albanian: dërdëllisje
• Arabic: رَطَانَة f (raṭāna)
• Armenian: դատարկաբանություն (hy) (datarkabanutʻyun), ցնորք (hy) (cʻnorkʻ)
• Azerbaijani: çərən-pərən
• Belarusian: тараба́ршчына f (tarabárščyna)
• Breton: gregach (br)
• Bulgarian: безсми́слица (bg) f (bezsmíslica)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 亂語／乱语 (luànyǔ), 胡言亂語／胡言乱语 (zh) (húyán luànyǔ), 胡話／胡话 (zh) (húhuà)

• Czech: páté přes deváté, hatmatilka (cs) f, galimatyáš (cs) m
• Danish: vrøvl n, volapyk n, kaudervælsk (da) n, nonsens (da) n
• Dutch: gewauwel (nl) n, koeterwaals (nl) n, wartaal (nl), gebrabbel (nl) n
• Esperanto: galimatio, volapukaĵo (eo)
• Finnish: siansaksa (fi), heprea (fi)
• French: baragouin (fr) m, charabia (fr) m, galimatias (fr) m, chinois (fr) m
• Galician: chinés (gl) m
• Georgian: გაუგებარი მეტყველება (gaugebari meṭq̇veleba), გაუგებარი ყბედობა (gaugebari q̇bedoba), აბდაუბდა (ka) (abdaubda)
• German: Kauderwelsch (de) n, Kokolores (de) m, Gequassel (de) n, Geschwafel (de) n
• Greek: ασυναρτησίες (el) (asynartisíes), αλαμπουρνέζικα (el) (alampournézika), κινέζικα (el) n pl (kinézika)
• Hebrew: קַשְׁקֶשֶׁת (he) f (kaskeset) גִ׳יבְּרִישׁ m (jibrish)
• Hungarian: badarság (hu), zagyvaság (hu), halandzsa (hu), bikkfanyelv (hu)
• Icelandic: djöflaþýska f, golfranska f
• Ido: jargono (io)
• Indonesian: pepesan kosong, bahasa raban
• Irish: gibiris f
• Italian: farfuglio (it) m, borbottio (it) m, baggianata (it) f, corbelleria (it) f, ostrogoto (it) m, arabo (it) m
• Japanese: でたらめ (ja) (detarame), 珍紛漢紛 (ちんぷんかんぷん, chinpunkanpun), ちんぷんかんぷん (ja) (chinpunkanpun)
• Kashubian: bùlbòt m
• Korean: 횡설수설(橫說竪說) (hoengseolsuseol)
• Limburgish: krièmerwelsj
• Macedonian: брборење n (brborenje), баботење n (babotenje)
• Maori: kōrero hunuru, reo kihi, kunanu
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: kaudervelsk, vrøvl (no) n, vås n, kaudervelsk m, sprøyt (no) n, sludder n, gresk (no) m

  Nynorsk: gresk (nn) m

• Polish: jazgot (pl) m, bełkot (pl) m, bajdura (pl) f
• Portuguese: algaravia (pt) f, grego (pt) m
• Russian: тараба́рщина (ru) f (tarabárščina), невня́тность (ru) f (nevnjátnostʹ), белиберда́ (ru) f (beliberdá), галиматья́ (ru) f (galimatʹjá), абракада́бра (ru) f (abrakadábra), пти́чий язы́к (ru) m (ptíčij jazýk)
• Scottish Gaelic: goileam m
• Spanish: algarabía (es) f, farfulla (es) f, monserga (es) f
• Swedish: nonsens (sv) n, rotvälska (sv) c, gallimatias (sv) c, grekiska (sv) c
• Tagalog: alimim, alim-im
• Turkish: saçmalık (tr)
• Ukrainian: тараба́рщина f (tarabárščyna)

needlessly obscure or overly technical language

• Arabic: ثَرْثَرَة f (ṯarṯara), بَرْبَرَة f (barbara)
• Bulgarian: техни́чески жарго́н m (tehníčeski žargón)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 亂語／乱语 (luànyǔ), 胡言亂語／胡言乱语 (zh) (húyán luànyǔ), 胡話／胡话 (zh) (húhuà)

• Czech: hatmatilka (cs) f, ptydepe (cs) n
• Dutch: visserslatijn (nl) n
• Finnish: heprea (fi), munkkilatina (fi)
• Georgian: გაუგებარი (gaugebari), ტექნიკური ენა (ṭekniḳuri ena)
• German: Fachchinesisch (de) n
• Japanese: ちんぷんかんぷん (ja) (chinpunkanpun)
• Polish: jazgot (pl) m, bełkot (pl) m
• Portuguese: jargão (pt) m
• Russian: тараба́рщина (ru) f (tarabárščina), белиберда́ (ru) f (beliberdá), бессмы́слица (ru) f (bessmýslica)
• Scottish Gaelic: goileam m
• Spanish: jerga (es) f, jerigonza f, galimatías (es) m
• Swedish: fikonspråk (sv) n
• Turkish: jargon (tr)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Esperanto: ^{(please verify)} volapukaĵo (eo), ^{(please verify)} volapukaĵoj (eo), ^{(please verify)} galimatio
• Estonian: ^{(please verify)} loba, ^{(please verify)} mula, ^{(please verify)} vadin
• Haitian Creole: ^{(please verify)} tenten
• Lithuanian: ^{(please verify)} tauškalai, ^{(please verify)} svaičiojimas
• Slovak: ^{(please verify)} táraniny f pl
• Spanish: ^{(please verify)} galimatías (es) m pl, ^{(please verify)} tonterías (es) f pl, ^{(please verify)} memeces f pl
• Vietnamese: ^{(please verify)} lời nói lắp bắp, ^{(please verify)} câu nói sai ngữ pháp

See also

• double Dutch
• framis
• gobbledygook, gobbledegook
• galimatias
• jargon
• mumbo jumbo
• nonsense
• rhubarb rhubarb

Adjective

gibberish (comparative more gibberish, superlative most gibberish)

1. unintelligible, incoherent or meaningless