babble

From Middle English babelen, from Old English *bæblian, also wæflian (“to talk foolishly”), from Proto-West Germanic *bablōn, *wablōn, variants of *babalōn, from Proto-Germanic *babalōną (“to chatter”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰa-bʰa-, perhaps a reduplication of Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂- (“to say”), or a variant of Proto-Indo-European *baba- (“to talk vaguely, mumble”), or a merger of the two, possibly ultimately onomatopoeic/mimicry of infantile sounds (compare babe, baby).

Cognate with Saterland Frisian babbelje (“to babble”), West Frisian babbelje (“to babble”), Dutch babbelen (“to babble, chat”), German Low German babbeln (“to babble”), German babbeln (“to babble”), Danish bable, bavle (“to babble”), Swedish babbla (“to babble”), Icelandic babla (“to babble”). Unrelated to Babel.

• IPA^(key): /ˈbæb.(ə)l/

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• Rhymes: -æbəl

A Baby babbling

babble (third-person singular simple present babbles, present participle babbling, simple past and past participle babbled)

1. (intransitive) To utter words indistinctly or unintelligibly; to utter inarticulate sounds

   The men were babbling, so we couldn't make sense of anything.

2. (intransitive) To talk incoherently; to utter meaningless words.
3. (intransitive) To talk too much; to chatter; to prattle.
   • 2022, Slipknot, The Dying Song (Time To Sing)

     Radical rather than rhetorical, babble like an oracle

4. (intransitive) To make a continuous murmuring noise, like shallow water running over stones.

   Hounds are said to babble, or to be babbling, when they are too noisy after having found a good scent.

   • 1815, William Wordsworth, “Extracts from Descriptive Sketches”, in Poems […], volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), London: […] Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […], →OCLC:

     In every babbling brook he finds a friend.

5. (transitive) To utter in an indistinct or incoherent way; to repeat words or sounds in a childish way without understanding.
   • 1733, Humphry Polesworth [pseudonym; John Arbuthnot], Alexander Pope, compiler, “Law is a Bottomless Pit. Or, The History of John Bull. […]. [The First Part.] Chapter VII. How John Bull was so Mightily Pleas’d with His Success, that He was Going to Leave Off His Trade, and Turn Lawyer.”, in Miscellanies, 2nd edition, volume II, London: […] Benjamin Motte, […], →OCLC, page 23:

     All this vvhile John had conn'd over ſuch a Catalogue of hard VVords, as vvere enough to conjure up the Devil; theſe he uſed to babble indifferently in all Companies, eſpecially at Coffee-houſes; ſo that his Neighbour Tradeſmen began to ſhun his Company as a Man that vvas crack'd.

6. (transitive) To reveal; to give away (a secret).

babble (usually uncountable, plural babbles)

1. Idle talk; senseless prattle

   Synonyms: gabble, twaddle

   • 1634 October 9 (first performance), [John Milton], edited by H[enry] Lawes, A Maske Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634: […] [Comus], London: […] [Augustine Matthews] for Hvmphrey Robinson, […], published 1637, →OCLC; reprinted as Comus: […] (Dodd, Mead & Company’s Facsimile Reprints of Rare Books; Literature Series; no. I), New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1903, →OCLC, line 823:

     This is mere moral babble.

2. Inarticulate speech; constant or confused murmur.
   • 1871, Charles Darwin, “Comparison of the Mental Powers of Man and the Lower Animals”, in The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex. […], volume I, London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, Part I (On the Descent of Man), page 55:

     [M]an has an instinctive tendency to speak, as we see in the babble of our young children; whilst no child has an instinctive tendency to brew, bake, or write.

3. A sound like that of water gently flowing around obstructions.
   • 1832 December (indicated as 1833), Alfred Tennyson, “Mariana in the South”, in Poems, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 23:

     [T]he babble of the stream / Fell, and without the steady glare / Shrank the sick olive sere and small.

• See also Thesaurus:chatter

• babblement
• babblery

• “babble”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

babble

1. inflection of babbeln:
   1. first-person singular present
   2. first/third-person singular subjunctive I
   3. singular imperative