Talk:Gobbledygook
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The claim that this derives from a term for fellatio is not sourced. It is, at best, disputed. 216.234.130.130 22:58, 14 December 2005 (UTC)
- Right, this was brought up on the Reference Desk/Language (Dec 14 2005), where it was pointed out that this sounds like an apocryphal folk-etymology. I think that sounds like a pretty likely explanation. I agree an authoritive source is needed for that. (Although if it's a popular enough folk-etymology it might be worthy of a mention for that sake) --BluePlatypus 23:14, 14 December 2005 (UTC)
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[edit] Finnish equivalents
I was a bit surprised to see a paragraph on Finnish words which sort of act like "gobbledygook" in the introduction to this article. I'm not even sure this needs to be here at all, but I gave it the benefit of the doubt and threw it into a section at the end. Deville 06:26, 12 January 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Spanish version
"cantinflear" may be used in Mexico, but that's not enough to put it as example for the "Spanish" version of the word.
[edit] Nonsense or nonsensical
I have always thought of gobbledygook as highly convoluted language that, while perhaps actually having meaning, it very difficult to understand, rather than simply nonsense. The example given in the second paragraph is infact convoluted language, rather than nonsense. Wschart 17:39, 13 February 2007 (UTC)
[edit] German Equivalent
Might it be Schabernack? Its colloquial meaning refers to nonsense in this case... --Lazer erazer 23:00, 5 March 2007 (UTC)
- As a German native speaker, I've never heard of Schabernack used to mean nonsense before, colloquial or otherwise. Schabernack as I've understood it has always meant prank, and indeed that's the only sense the German WP article refers to at the time I write this. Perhapse I've just hanging out with the wrong people though — can anyone else comment? -Cohen the Bavarian 00:04, 14 November 2007 (UTC)
- As an Austrian, I can only agree. David Marjanović (talk) 23:05, 30 January 2008 (UTC)
I second that. Schabernack refers to a prank, hoax or practical joke. I would suggest Kauderwelsch as closest German equivalent. "Kauderwelsch" is a pejorative term referring to a confusing mix of different languages or words and terms that are incomprehensible to the listener but not necessarily nonsense. Duncan.blues (talk) 14:54, 29 February 2008 (UTC)
