The etymology of gibberish refers to a French word that refers to a tangled or confusing text or speech . The etymological origin, however, is found in the Greek expression katà Matthaîon , which translates as “according to Matthew” . This is linked to the description of genealogy that Matthew the Apostle makes at the beginning of his gospel.
The idea of gibberish, in this way, refers to an intricate and difficult to understand language , with confusing ideas. He who expresses himself in gibberish does so in an unclear manner.
For example: “The German philosopher's new essay is made up of various gibberish that does not contribute anything interesting,” “The businessman's gibberish did not serve to provide peace of mind to the workers,” “With a speech full of gibberish, the president announced the economic plan for next year.”
In colloquial language, the concept of gibberish is used with respect to a disorder , a muddle or a confusion : “The fact that the city organizes the film festival and the soccer tournament on the same date generates gibberish,” “The new political front on the left is a gibberish that brings together leaders with little in common” , “The poisoning of eight players and three members of the coaching staff caused a gibberish in the club” .
Returning to the etymology of gibberish , we must point out that according to the Treasury of the French Language , a dictionary dating from the 19th and 20th centuries, there is evidence of the existence of this term since the 1580s, in Montaigne's Essays , which leaves the other proposals invalid .
Regarding the hypothesis mentioned at the beginning of this article, which refers to the expression "according to Matthew", it is a proposal by the linguist Henry R. Kahane , who points out that it spread from the Greek city Byzantium. The French Academy of Language does not consider it completely valid but classifies it as uncertain.
It is enough to read the first lines of the gospel of Saint Matthew to understand the reasons that relate this concept to the apostle's way of expressing himself. They present a very extensive description of the kinship relationship that existed between many of the most important characters in the Bible, such as Abraham, David and Tamar.
The importance of the French language in this context is that from it we receive the word gibberish , with the same meaning. If Kahane's theory is correct, then gibberish emerged in Greece before reaching France.
It is important to keep in mind that the gender of the word gibberish is masculine (it is said “a gibberish” and not “a gibberish” ) and that it is a term invariable in number (it is expressed in the same way in singular and plural: “a gibberish” , “some gibberish” ).
It is necessary to make these clarifications because in everyday speech it is normal for people to get confused when using certain uncommon words and expressions. Perhaps the most serious aspect of these errors is that they are then passed from one speaker to another and, in a matter of a few years, the Royal Spanish Academy ends up accepting them as part of the correct language, a strategy that has been deforming our language for years.
The big problem that sustains this kind of linguistic licentiousness is that the language does not belong to anyone, not even to those who are born in the land where it is officially spoken, but rather it belongs to everyone. For this reason, we all have the same right to speak and write in a language , regardless of the degree of knowledge we have of it. Curiously, both one extreme and the other, that is, erudition and illiteracy, tend to lead to gibberish more frequently than a moderate level.