| 释义 |
▪ I. jabber, v.|ˈdʒæbə(r)|
Also 5–6 iaber.
[app. onomatopœic, with the form of a frequentative; with jabber, jabble, cf. gab, gabber, gabble; also yabber; the phonetic relation between these is not clear. An earlier form in the Promptorium MSS. is javer, which in Pynson's ed. became jaber.]
1. intr. To talk rapidly and indistinctly or unintelligibly; to speak volubly and with little sense; to chatter, gabble, prattle. Often applied, in contempt or derision, to the speaking of a language which is unintelligible to the hearer.
1499Promp. Parv. 256/2 (Pynson), Iangelyn or iaberyn [Harl. MS. iaveryn], garrulo, blatero. Ibid. 487/1 Tateryn or iaberyn [Harl. MS. iaueryn, or speke wythe owte resone], garrio, blatero. 1655Fuller Ch. Hist. i. iv. §23 Which Infant..doth not jabber so strangely, but that she is perfectly understood by her Parent. 1678Phillips (ed. 4), To Jabber, a word vulgarly used for to prattle, chat, or talk. 1748Smollett Rod. Rand. lvi, He had brought a gentleman who could jabber with her in French. 1866Mrs. H. Wood St. Martin's Eve xxvii. (1874) 340 We have got two Flemish servants, and you should hear them jabbering.
b. To utter inarticulate sounds rapidly and volubly; to chatter, as monkeys, birds, etc.; to gibber or jibber.
c1817Hogg Tales & Sk. IV. 41 Allanson made some sound..as if attempting to speak, but his tongue refused its office, and he only jabbered. a1859Macaulay Hist. Eng. xxiii. V. 76 The fool who jabbered at his feet, the monkey which grinned at the back of his chair. 1860Trollope West Indies xx. 310 In the huge trees the monkeys hung jabbering. 1894Hall Caine Manxman v. iii. 289 On the top of the crag the sea-fowl were jabbering.
2. trans. To speak or utter rapidly and indistinctly; to express by jabbering. Often contemptuously = to speak (a foreign language), with the implication that it is unintelligible to the hearer.
1532More Confut. Tindale vi. Wks. 665 Whatsoeuer the Iewes would iaber or iangle agayn. 1715Bentley Serm. x. 348 They must jabber their Credos and Pater-Nosters at Home. 1716Addison Freeholder No. 22 ⁋2 He did not know what Travelling was good for, but to teach a Man..to jabber French, and to talk against Passive Obedience. 1854H. Miller Sch. & Schm. xviii. (1856) 383 A poor idiot,..used to come every day to the churchyard, to..jabber in broken expressions his grief.
Hence ˈjabbering vbl. n. and ppl. a. jabbering crow, a small species of crow common in Jamaica (Corvus Jamaicensis). ˈjabberingly adv., in a jabbering manner (Hyde Clarke, 1855).
1499Promp. Parv. 487/2 (Pynson), Taterynge or iaberinge [Harl. MS. iauerynge, Winch. MS. iaperynge], garritus. 1543Bale Course Rom. Fox 43 b, Latyne Iabberynge and wawlynge, accordynge to the offyce of saynt Antonynes personage. 1689Hickeringill Ceremony-monger 29 His Singing-Boys with their alternate Jabberings and Mouthings. 1728Pope Dunc. ii. 237 'Twas chatt'ring, grinning, mouthing, jabb'ring all. a1795Sir W. Jones Hymn to Lacshmí Wks. 1799 VI. 364 Jabb'ring spectres o'er her traces glide. 1875Whitney Life Lang. xiv. 292 To study the jabberings of monkeys.
▪ II. jabber, n.|ˈdʒæbə(r)|
[f. prec. vb.]
The act of jabbering; rapid and indistinct or unintelligible talk; gabble, chatter; gibberish.
1727Swift Gulliver, Let. to Cousin Sympson Wks. 1778 V. 7 Who only differ from their brother brutes in Houyhnhnmland, because they use a sort of Jabber. 1801W. Taylor in Monthly Mag. XII. 586 A sea-port jabber, formed..by the mishmash of a hundred dialects. 1838J. L. Stephens Trav. Greece, etc. 45/1 He..was utterly ignorant of any language but his own; despised all foreigners, and detested their ‘jabber’. 1893Mrs. C. Praed Outlaw & Lawmaker II. xvi. 85 Prepared for what she called a ‘jabber’. |