Etymologically
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garble

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈɡɑː(ɹ)bəl/[1]

Etymology

It comes from Middle English garbelen “to sift impurities from spices”,[2][3][4] from Anglo-Norman garbeler (“to sift”)[2][3][5] and from Medieval Latin garbellare,[2][3][5] from Arabic غربل (ḡarbala, “to sift”),[2][3][5][6][4] related to ġirbāl “sieve”,[2][3][5] which is perhaps from Late Latin cribellum, a diminutive of Latin cribrum (“sieve”).[2][3][5][6][4] Barnhart and Etymonline note that the word was widespread among Mediterranean traders.[3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

To inspect spices and remove the dirt and refuse from them (1419–20 in Barnhart, early 15th century in Etymonline).[3][5][2]

Semantic evolution

Spices and drugs imported from the eastern Mediterranean often contained chaff, which had to be sifted out.[5] From sifting spices the verb passed to selecting the best of anything (1483),[7][5] and to weeding out unwanted members of a body.[7] By 1689–92 it meant to make unfair or mischievous selections from a statement or writing, so as to distort its meaning;[7][3][5] from this came the sense of mixing up or confusing language,[5][2][4] and later of scrambling a signal or message.[2][6]

Timeline

  • 1419–20 – to remove refuse from spices.[3]
  • 1483 – to pick out the best.[7]
  • 1502 – noun, refuse removed from spices.[7][6]
  • 1689–92 – to distort by unfair selection.[7][3]
  • 1829 – noun, of language (Etymonline).[5]

Modern meaning

Verb

  1. To mix up or distort so as to make misleading or incomprehensible.
  2. To scramble a signal or message, as by faulty encoding or transmission.
  3. (archaic) To sift impurities from; to cull or pick out the best of.

Noun

  1. An act or instance of garbling.
  2. Impurities sifted from spices.

Word family

  • garbler
  • garbage
  • certain

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  4. ^ a b c d Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  7. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press