They’re out there just to confuse you. You can find them in your workplace, your school, the places where you shop, the restaurants you eat at, maybe even in your home. Their mission in life is to leave you wondering what they said and what they meant by it.
Who are these people? One name for them is bafflegabbers. They speak mostly in messy, wordy jargon. Incomprehensible gibberish is what comes out of their mouths. Confusing legal or bureaucratic language comes naturally to them.
I’ve read and reviewed a few books that were written like this. Parts of books I’ve edited have started out as not easily understandable. Anyone is capable of speaking or writing like this, especially first thing in the morning before that first cup of coffee, but others seem to delight in the confusion they bring to others when they speak in such a way.
What words that describe this type of language?
Balderdash is senseless, stupid, or exaggerated talk or writing; nonsense.
Bafflegab is confusing or generally unintelligible jargon; gobbledygook.
Claptrap is pretentious but insincere or empty language.
Deadwood, besides being dead branches or trees, is unnecessary words, phrases, or exposition used in writing. It is expendable verbiage.
Doublespeak or doubletalk is evasive, ambiguous language that is intended to deceive or confuse.
Drivel pertains not only to speaking but also your thinking. It is childish, silly, or meaningless talk or thinking; nonsense; twaddle.
Gibberish is talk or writing containing many obscure, pretentious, or technical words.
Gobbledygook is language characterized by circumlocution and jargon and is usually hard to understand.
Hogwash is meaningless or insincere talk, writing, etc.; nonsense; bunk.
Newspeak is an official or semiofficial style of writing or saying one thing in the guise of its opposite, especially in order to serve a political or ideological cause while pretending to be objective, as in referring to “increased taxation” as “revenue enhancement.”
In Oceania, the place in 1984 by George Orwell, even what you think can be a crime.
Rigmarole is confused, incoherent, foolish, or meaningless talk.
Song and dance is a story or statement, especially an untrue or misleading one designed to evade the matter at hand.
Mumbo jumbo is senseless or pretentious language, usually designed to obscure an issue, confuse a listener, or the like.
Nonsense is words or language having little or no sense or meaning.
Rubbish is nonsense, as in writing or art.
Writing Prompts:
Mumbo Jumbo—the first letter of each word capitalized—is the guardian of western Sudan villages symbolized by a masked man who combats evil and punishes women for breaches of tribal laws. What if Mumbo Jumbo fought mumbo jumbo? Would mumbo jumbo be defeated?
What if you lived in a world where everything that was spoken would qualify as nonsense, bafflegab, rigmarole, newspeak, or one of the other above words? How would one be able to find out the truth? Would it even be possible?
Now create a world where no senseless or confusing talk is allowed. How does that work out? Does it stifle imagination? Are people afraid to speak because what comes out of their mouths could be construed as senseless?
