-BABBLE COMBINING FORM

The jargon or gobbledegook that is characteristic of the subject, group, etc. named in the first part of the word: ecobabble (Environment), environmental jargon; especially, meaningless green jargon designed to make its user sound environmentally aware; Eurobabble (Politics), the jargon of European Community documents and regulations; psychobabble (People and Society), language that is heavily influenced by concepts and terms from psychology; technobabble (Science and Technology), technical jargon, especially from computing and other high-technology areas. Etymology: The noun babble means 'inarticulate or imperfect speech, especially that of a child': the implication here is that these jargon-ridden forms of the language sound like so much nonsense to those who are not 'in the know'. In these words babble has been added on to the combining form of ecological etc. like a suffix: compare the earlier use of -speak in this way, after George Orwell's Newspeak and Oldspeak in the novel 1984. History and Usage: Psychobabble was coined in the US in the mid seventies, when various forms of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy were fashionable and the terms of these subjects were often bandied about by laypeople who only partly understood them. In 1977, Richard Rosen devoted a whole book to the subject of Americans who used this language of analysis. It was not long before other forms using -babble started to appear in the language: Eurobabble arrived soon after Britain's entry into the EC and ecobabble followed in the mid eighties as the green movement gained momentum. Is the environmental hoopla resonating through the halls of American business 'mere corporate ecobabble intended to placate the latest group of special-interest loonies'? Los Angeles Times 1 Feb. 1990, section E, p. 1 No matter that the Kohl-Mitterrand accords might amount to no more than Eurobabble. They, and many British voters, see a Continental future in which ever more business is ordained without British involvement. The Times 27 Apr. 1990, p. 13