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.l̩/

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• Rhymes: -æbəl

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.
   • 1815, William Wordsworth, Extracts from Descriptive Sketches

     In every babbling brook he finds a friend.

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

5. (transitive) To utter in an indistinct or incoherent way; to repeat words or sounds in a childish way without understanding.
   • 1712, John Arbuthnot, The History of John Bull:

     These [words] he used to babble indifferently in all companies.

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

• babbling brook

babble (usually uncountable, plural babbles)

1. Idle talk; senseless prattle

   Synonyms: gabble, twaddle

   • 1634 October 9 (first performance), [John Milton], H[enry] Lawes, editor, A Maske Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634: […] [Comus], London: […] [Augustine Matthews] for Hvmphrey Robinson, […], published 1637, OCLC 228715864; 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 1113942837, 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 156113994, 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 3944791, 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, G. & C. Merriam, 1913

babble

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