Do you have any conscious memory of your childhood, when you used to utter sounds such as ‘aaaa’, ‘baaaa’, ‘mooooo’, ‘maa’ or ‘paa’? Well, each of these words counts as an instance of the mumbo-jumbo use of language or rather our speaking skills. Another instance of these incoherent sounds is ‘bab-bab’, from which is derived the word under our lens today. Babble is the utterance of meaningless sounds. And by extension, talking foolishly also becomes an extension of the same meaningless talk.

babble

The dictionary definitions for babble are as follows:
1. to utter (words, sounds, etc) in an incoherent or indistinct jumble. (verb)
2. ( intr ) to talk foolishly, incessantly, or irrelevantly. (verb)
3. ( tr ) to disclose (secrets, confidences, etc) carelessly or impulsively. (verb)
4. ( intr ) (of streams, birds, etc) to make a low murmuring or bubbling sound. (verb)

Masters Tip to remember Babble:
Just remember your childhood and all the sounds you used to make then. Those sounds were your babble. With regards to your present day context, we can easily identify a few more situations when one is susceptible to babble: while asking out a girl, while giving a job interview or while explaining how your dad’s car got damaged after the drive last night. Each of these instances counts elicit a response which can be labeled as babble.

Usage examples for Babble:
1. Don’t give one word answers and don’t babble Yes and no answers may make an interviewer think you are not really interested.
2. It is difficult to compare the content management products available because of the widespread use of jargon, buzzwords, and marketing babble.

Footnote: Psychobabble
Directly Quoting from Wikipedia.com:
Psychobabble (a portmanteau of “psychology” or “psychoanalysis” and “babble”) is a form of prose using jargon, buzzwords and highly esoteric language to give an impression of plausibility through mystification, misdirection, and obfuscation. The term implies that the speaker of psychobabble lacks the experience and understanding necessary for proper use of a given psychological term. Frequent usage can associate a clinical word with less meaningful buzzword definitions. Some psychological buzzwords have come into widespread use in business management training, motivational seminars, self-help, folk psychology, and popular psychology. Laypersons may overuse such words in describing life problems as clinical maladies when such nomenclature is not valuable, meaningful or appropriate. Theodore Dalrymple defines the term as “the means by which people talk about themselves without revealing anything”.

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