| 释义 |
ˈbafflegab orig. and chiefly U.S.
[f. baffle v. + gab n.2]
Official or professional jargon which confuses more than it clarifies; gobbledegook.
1952Daily Tel. 23 Jan. 4/6 A new word for lovers of officialese is bafflegab, invented by Mr. Milton A. Smith, assistant general counsel for the American Chamber of Commerce. He has won a prize for the word—and its definition: ‘Multiloquence characterised by a consummate interfusion of circumlocution..and other familiar manifestations of abstruse expatiation commonly utilised for promulgations implementing procrustean determinations by governmental bodies.’ 1958I. Brown Words in our Time 24 Here is a plain term used by Americans as an alternative to Gobbledygook; both describe the monstrous and mystifying language in which official documents are written... They do not speak bafflegab, perhaps, but, in the way of all politicians they must learn and practise the tricky evasive style now known as double-talk. 1969Y. Carter Mr. Campion's Farthing xii. 105 This is long-winded tripe dressed up in police court bafflegab. 1977It June 2/3 Anarchism has got nothing to do with such bafflegab mystagoguery as ‘the common source of all energy’. 1984Listener 2 Feb. 5/2 What I find incredibly naive is the critics' apparent belief that politicians will ever..be completely frank while speaking ‘on the record’ about sensitive subjects... They inevitably descend publicly into quotable bafflegab. |