Another contribution to world culture by a Texan.
Gary Edwards (Occasionally fiery but seldom particularly literate)
Walt Wayman <hiwayman@xxxxxxx> wrote:
gobbledygook n. [cf. gobbledygook] pretentious or deceptive nonsense; malarkey;
(specif.) language characterized by pomposity, circumlocution, or jargon. Now
S.E. [Introduced in its specific sense by Maury Maverick, chairman of the
Smaller War Plants Corp., early 1944] 1944 Amer. N & Q (Apr.): Gobbledygook
talk: Maury Maverick's name for the long high-sounding words of Washington's
red-tape language. 1944 Time (Apr. 10): Maury Maverick, fluent, fiery but
literate Texas talker, railed against what he called Washington's
"gobbledygook" language ... "Anyone using the words 'activation' or
'implementation' should be shot." 1944 M. Maverick in N.Y. Times Mag (May 21)
Gobbledygook? People asked me how I got the word. I do not know. It must have
come in a vision. Perhaps I was thinking of the old bearded turkey gobbler back
in Texas. 1944 in OEDS: The explanations sound like gobbledygook to me. 1956
Heinlein "Door": Skipping the gobbledygook -- like all lawyers, Miles was
fond of polysyllables -- Miles wanted to do three things. 1957 in "Sandburg
Letters": He knew gobbledygook but didn't talk it. 1958 Frankel "Band of
Brothers" [ref. to 1950]: Everybody's got his own kind of gobbledygook.
And on and on at page 912 of the Randon House Historical Dictionary of American
Slang, Volume 1. This is less than half of the full entry. I just got tired of
copying it. Three cheers for Maury Maverick!
Walt
--
"Anything more than 500 yards from
the car just isn't photogenic." --
Edward Weston
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