babble

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English babelen, also bablen,^[2][3][4] probably imitative.^[3][5][6] The OED and Skeat take it as formed on the syllable /ba/, typical of an infant's first sounds and so of childish or nonsensical talk, with the frequentative suffix -le.^[7][8][9] Others weigh a loan: Hoad and the Shorter Oxford think it probably from Middle Low German babbelen unless it is a parallel native formation,^[10][11] and the MED gives Old French babiller.^[2] Parallel forms are found in many European languages,^[7][3] such as Dutch babbelen (1544), German babbeln (17th century), Icelandic babbla, Danish bavle, Swedish babbla and the French verb just named (about 1170),^[7] and some of them may have been borrowed from others.^[12] Köbler sets up Proto-Germanic *babalōną.^[13] Further comparisons are Latin babulus (“babbler”), balbus (“stammering”)^[3][12][5] and Ancient Greek βάρβαρος (bárbaros, “non-Greek-speaking, foreign”).^[12][5] There is no etymological link with Babel, although that name may have affected the senses.^[7][12][3] The noun comes from the verb; compare Anglo-Norman bable and French babil.^[7][11][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

To talk too much or out of place, to chatter: before 1250, in the Ancrene Riwle.^[7][3] Etymonline says the mid-13th century.^[12]

Semantic evolution

From chattering the verb spread to mumbling or inarticulate sound: before 1400 a translation of Lanfranc compares a babbled answer to the speech of a child beginning to talk.^[7][2] In Mum and the Sothsegger (about 1450) it is used of birds,^[7] from about 1535 of letting out a secret,^[7] from 1575 of a hound barking without reason.^[7] From 1751, in Gray's Elegy, it was used of murmuring water.^[7] The noun, recorded from before 1525,^[7] was often doubled as bibble-babble in the 16th century.^[12] Johnson (1755) defined it as "idle talk; senseless prattle".^[14] Soon it also meant a jumble of voices (before 1592),^[7] an infant's sounds (1667)^[7] and, in telephony, noise from other lines (1930).^[7][5] As a second element it now forms words for pretentious jargon, like psychobabble.^[11][7] In 18th-century British underworld slang babble meant to inform on someone.^[15] In Westmorland, Yorkshire and Lancashire dialect the noun meant gossip or an idle story, in Westmorland also a lie.^[16] In Australia and New Zealand babbling brook is rhyming slang for a cook.^[11]

Timeline

• before 1250 – to chatter, to talk too much.^[7][3]
• before 1400 – to make inarticulate sounds, as a small child does.^[7][2]
• c. 1450 – of a bird, to chirp or warble.^[7]
• c. 1500 – noun, idle or foolish talk.^[12][11] The OED's first quotation is from before 1525, and Merriam-Webster gives about 1525.^[7][5]
• c. 1535 – to reveal a secret by careless talk.^[7]
• 1575 – of a hound, to bark too loudly or without reason.^[7]
• before 1592 – noun, a jumble of sound, especially of voices.^[7]
• 1667 – noun, an infant's rudimentary speech.^[7][12]
• 1736 – in underworld slang, to inform against.^[15]
• 1751 – of water, to murmur or gurgle.^[7]
• 1930 – noun, in telephony, noise from crosstalk.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To talk foolishly, excitedly or at length; to chatter or prattle: He babbled on about his new car all evening.^[6][5][7]
2. To utter indistinct or meaningless sounds, as a baby does: The infant babbled happily in her high chair.^[6][5][7]
3. Of water or birds: to make a low, continuous, murmuring sound: A stream babbled past the mill.^[6][5][7]
4. To reveal a secret through careless talk.^[6][7]
5. Of a hound: to bark before finding the scent, or without reason.^[5][7]

Noun

1. Foolish or idle talk; nonsense.^[6][5][7]
2. A confused sound of many voices, or the murmur of flowing water: the babble of the crowd in the station.^[6][5][7]
3. The meaningless sounds of a very young child.^[5][7]
4. Pretentious jargon, chiefly as a second element in compounds.^[11][7]
5. In telephony, noise caused by crosstalk from other lines.^[5][7][11]

Word family

• babblement
• babbler
• outbabble

Related words

• babe
• baby
• bibble-babble
• blab
• blabber
• Babel
• barbarous

Usage notes

A rare Middle English verb babelen, to bob up and down or swing (1440–1500), has a separate source, perhaps bob.^[7][2] In East Yorkshire a babble was a leather bag with a stone in it on a string, and on the night of 4 November, called Babbling-night, people went round the village striking cottage doors with it.^[16]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
13. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
16. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)