The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #106490   Message #2200233
Posted By: Charley Noble
22-Nov-07 - 05:28 PM
Thread Name: Nautical Gobbily Gook
Subject: RE: Nautical Gobbily Gook
My apologies for mispelling this slang term (from Wikipedia website):

Gobbledygook or gobbledegook (sometimes shortened to gobbledegoo) is an English term used to describe nonsensical language, sound that resembles language but has no meaning, or unintelligible encrypted text. It is also used to refer to official, professional or pretentious language. In this meaning gobbledygook is at best a hurdle of communication and at worst means of imposing power.

The term was coined on March 30, 1944 by Maury Maverick, chairman of the United States Smaller War Plants Corporation. In a memo banning "gobbledygook language", he wrote "anyone using the words activation or implementation will be shot".[1] Maverick later used the word in the New York Times Magazine on May 21, 1944 as part of a further complaint against the obscure language used by his colleagues. His inspiration, he said, was the turkey, "always gobbledy gobbling and strutting with ludicrous pomposity. At the end of his gobble, there was a sort of gook."

One should always be open to further enlightenment. Thanks!

Cheerily,
Charley Noble