Word of the day has previously discussed Samuel Maverick, the famously independent Texas rancher. His grandson, Congressman, Maury Maverick, chaired the Samller War Plants Committee. Commenting on his fellow committee members in May 1944 he pictured them as turkeys, “always gobbledy gobbling and strutting with ludicrous pomposity”.
The phrase struck a chord and has become a familiar description of language so complicated and heavy with jargon that it cannot be understood by outsiders. Organisations such as the Campaign for Plain English have voiced the general public’s displeasure with gobbledegook, and the problem is certainly not confined to English speaking countries. In Germany you might be told that a statement is as clear as “Bohemian villages”, and Russians might protest that what they have heard resembles “Chinese grammar”. Fans of the Harry Potter series will recall that the word is used in a slightly different way. The official language of JK Rowling’s goblins is of course gobbledegook.
