babblingn.1
/ˈbabl̩ɪŋ/, /ˈbablɪŋ/, U.S. /ˈbæb(ə)lɪŋ/ 1.
a. The action or fact of speaking in a foolish, incoherent, or indiscreet manner; prattling; prating; tattling; an instance or example of any of these.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > speech > loquacity or talkativeness > [noun] > chattering
chaveling?c1225
janglingc1330
jangleryc1374
tatteringc1380
ganglinga1387
clatteringc1400
babbling?c1430
languetingc1450
pratinga1470
cackling1530
prattling1530
tattling1547
gaggling1548
clicketing1575
twattling1577
clacking1594
gabbling1599
blattering1604
snuttering1693
futileness1727
rattling1753
gabbering1798
magginga1800
yaffing1815
deblateration1817
tattlement1837
nattering1859
spieling1859
yattering1859
chatteration1862
quiddling1870
windjamming1886
waffling1958
motormouthing1981
the mind > mental capacity > intelligibility > absence of meaning > nonsense, rubbish > empty, idle talk > [noun]
windc1290
trotevalea1300
follyc1300
jangle1340
jangleryc1374
tongue1382
fablec1384
clapa1420
babbling?c1430
clackc1440
pratinga1470
waste?a1475
clattera1500
trattle1513
babble?a1525
tattlea1529
tittle-tattlea1529
chatc1530
babblery1532
bibble-babble1532
slaverings1535
trittle-trattle1563
prate?1574
babblement1595
pribble-prabble1595
pribble1603
morologya1614
pibble-pabblea1616
sounda1616
spitter-spatter1619
argology1623
vaniloquence1623
vaniloquy1623
drivelling1637
jabberment1645
blateration1656
onology1670
whittie-whattiea1687
stultiloquence1721
claver1722
blether1786
havera1796
jaunder1796
havering1808
slaver1825
yatter1827
bugaboo1833
flapdoodle1834
bavardage1835
maunder1835
tattlement1837
slabber1840
gup1848
faddle1850
chatter1851
cock1851
drivel1852
maundering1853
drooling1854
windbaggery1859
blither1866
javer1869
mush1876
slobber1886
guff1888
squit1893
drool1900
macaroni1924
jive1928
natter1943
shtick1948
old talk1956
yack1958
yackety-yack1958
ole talk1964
Haigspeak1981
?c1430 (c1400) J. Wyclif Eng. Wks. (1880) 190 Preiere of holy lif..not of babelynge of lippis.
c1450 (c1405) Mum & Sothsegger (BL Add. 41666) (1936) l. 239 (MED) I blussid for his bablyng and a-bode stille.
a1470 T. Malory Morte Darthur (Winch. Coll. 13) (1990) III. 1216 And thou darste do batayle, leve thy babelynge and com off, and lat us ease oure hartis!
1535 Bible (Coverdale) Prov. x. C Where moch bablinge is, there must nedes be offence.
1563 N. Winȝet Certain Tractates (1888) I. 44 Vaine babling of Godis worde.
1611 Bible (King James) Prov. xxiii. 29 Who hath contentions? who hath babbling ? View more context for this quotation
1664 R. Baxter Divine Life ii. i. 169 The discourses of the learned make us disregard the bablings of children.
1758 ‘Mrs. Richwould’ South Sea Fortune II. iv. 49 After what had been said by my sister, I was resolved to put a stop to her babbling.
1791 G. Butt Serm. I. vii. 133 The first father of rational divinity who cleared his way out of the points, and puns, and mystical babbling of the preceding age, was Bishop Sanderson.
1833 G. P. R. James Mary of Burgundy III. iv. 119 He believed that he could trust to old habits of caution to keep his companion from any indiscreet babbling, either drunk or sober.
1869 E. A. Freeman Hist. Norman Conquest (1876) III. xi. 11 All this prophetic talk was but the babbling of an old man.
1931 Pop. Sci. Monthly Mar. 16/3 I am just scientific enough not to swallow all the babblings of these self-exalted, so-called scientists.
1964 Jet 16 Jan. 49 Civilized religion often sounds like the superstitious babbling of pagans.
2005 Time Out N.Y. 7 Apr. 103/1 His hyperverbal comedy style known as mo lay tau, a mishmash of triple-entendre wordplay and irreverent babbling.
b. The chattering of a bird. Also (Hunting): the undisciplined barking of a foxhound.In earliest use of a parrot; perhaps passing into sense 2a.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > mammals > group Unguiculata or clawed mammal > family Canidae > hound > [noun] > sound made by > making sound
abayc1330
yearning1531
babbling1568
earning?1578
chiding1600
opening1662
tonguing1851
tolling1869
1568 W. Barker tr. G. B. Gelli Fearfull Fansies of Florentine Couper f. 63v Our reading or singing of psalmes, not vnderstanding what we say, is lyke the tatling of Children, or the babling of Popeniayes.
1599 R. Rollock Certaine Serm. ix. 213 All that he speikis is like the babling of ane Parockquet.
1616 G. Markham tr. C. Estienne et al. Maison Rustique (rev. ed.) vii. xxii. 679 His cunning hunting is discerned by..his stilnesse and quietnesse in hunting without babling or barking.
1686 Gentlemans Recreation i. 15 Babbling..is when the hounds are too busy after they have found a good scent.
1781 Monthly Rev. Sept. 213 Is not this better than to be subject to continual disappointment, from the eternal babbling of unsteady hounds?
1853 H. L. Meyer Coloured Illustr. Brit. Birds, & their Eggs 84 The incessant babbling of the parent bird also tends to the discovery of the nest.
1875 Contemp. Rev. Feb. 361 Words which had sounded to Greek ears like the babbling of birds in a hedge.
1910 Outing May 210/1 Punishment for babbling and running riot should be administered promptly and decisively [to a young hound].
1994 J. L. Beizer Ventriloquized Bodies v. 114 It is set against whispering breezes and singing birds and is itself compared to the babbling of finches.
2.
a. The utterance of inarticulate or unintelligible sounds; rudimentary speech; spec. the stage of language development in which an infant utters recognizable (although random) phonemes, frequently as reduplicated series of monosyllables. Also: an utterance of this type.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > speech > manner of speaking > [noun] > murmuring or muttering
blabberingc1375
mammeringa1425
mumblingc1440
mumming1440
rumbling1440
mutteringc1475
buzzing1532
momblishness1532
hummel-bummel1537
murmuration1541
mumblement1595
babblinga1599
hummering1637
mutter1637
fumble1647
murmur1704
admurmuration1727
slurring1806
a1599 R. Rollock Lect. Epist. Paul to Colossians (1603) i. 51 All that men & Angels can speak of it, is but like the blabbery and babling of a child: so infinite and incomprehensible is the glorie of that high maiestie.
1614 Brief Disc. Script. 40 Hee ouerthrew the rebellious Nimrod, and the rest of the Nephewes of Noah, that would haue a Name; and turned their speach into Babling.
1715 L. Theobald tr. Aristophanes Clouds v. i. 59 I that have brought you up from a Child, heard all your Infant Babblings.
1803 J. Gardiner Ess. I. 60 It is at first like the babbling of an infant, not intelligible.
1891 Pedagogical Seminary 1 257 Later comes the babbling stage in which sounds are produced simply as so much exercise of the vocal muscles, pleasantly associated with auditory sensations.
1917 S. Rohmer Hand of Fu-Manchu (1920) ii. 10 He resumed the wordless babbling, and now, with his index finger, pointed to his mouth. ‘He has lost the power of speech!’
1969 A. A. Hill in Linguistics Today xv. 271 What he did was isolate two newborn infants and observe their babblings when they had reached the age at which talking could be expected.
2005 C. Code in R. J. Hartsuiker et al. Phonol. Encoding & Monitoring vii. 121 Babbling, which emerges universally at about 7 months, is characterized by a fairly strict order of appearance of consonant/vowel (CV) combinations.
b. With reference to things. The making of an indistinct, subdued, continuous sound; esp. the murmuring or gurgling of flowing water. Also: an instance of this.
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > hearing and noise > degree, kind, or quality of sound > faintness or weakness > [noun] > faint or weak sound > murmuring sound
murmuringc1385
murmur?a1425
murmell1535
babblea1592
muttering1613
huma1616
mussitation1649
simmering1689
croon1725
babbling1736
brool1837
brooling1837
brum1842
babblement1860
1736 J. Hort Proposal Quadrille in J. Swift Irish Misc. 5 The little Church-Bells shall cease their Babblings.
1837 N. Hawthorne Amer. Notebks. (1972) ii. 55 No noise but the..babbling of the stream.
1885 Eclectic Mag. June 797/1 All was silence but the babbling of the water among the rocks.
1902 Public Health May 491 Even now at their sources people might admire some of that loveliness as they listened to their moorland prattle or caught their babblings in their rocky cradles.
1946 New Writing & Daylight No. 5. 50 Henceforward nothing was heard but the babbling of the old clock and the purring of the cat.
2005 J. Weiner Goodnight Nobody xxiii. 200 I heard the thrum of traffic on Main Street, the faint babbling of the brook that ran behind the bagel shop.
Compounds
General attributive, as babbling place, babbling school, etc.
ΚΠ
1568 G. Turberville tr. D. Mancinus Plaine Path to Perfect Vertue sig. B.j The Souldier stoute did scorne Philosophers that all their liues in babling schooles haue worne.
1632 R. Sherwood Dict. sig. C/2, in R. Cotgrave Dict. French & Eng. Tongues (new ed.) A Babbling place, (where gossips meet.) caquetoire.
1659 J. Milton Considerations touching Hirelings 149 Bred up for divines in babling schooles.
1721 M. Prior Solomon iii, in Poems Several Occasions II. 228 Let the silent Sanctuary show, What from the babling Schools We may not know.
?1842 E. B. Lytton Paul Clifford xxxiii. 385 Had that woman..really loved me,..I could have lived on in this babbling hermitage for ever.
1859 I. Taylor Logic in Theol. vi. 233 He enjoyed the companionship of Gregory Nazianzen, Basil, and other bright-witted and ‘fast’ young men of that babbling place.
2000 R. Hamasaki in F. Ho et al. Legacy to Liberation 341 Conspire against double talk Turn ivy towers into a babbling school.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2011; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
babblingn.2
/ˈbabl̩ɪŋ/, /ˈbablɪŋ/, U.S. /ˈbæb(ə)lɪŋ/ Now historical.
Swinging in the air; wavering, fluttering. Cf. babble v.2In modern quot. babbling of the hands is probably interpreted as an extended use of babbling n.1
ΘΚΠ
the world > movement > motion in specific manner > alternating or reciprocating motion > oscillation > [noun] > swinging or oscillation of suspended body
babbling1440
swing1589
vibration1668
swinging1669
vibrating1743
Promptorium Parvulorum (Harl. 221) 20 Babelynge or wauerynge, vacillacio, librillacio.
c1600 (?c1395) Pierce Ploughman's Crede (Trin. Cambr. R.3.15) (1873) l. 551 Þei..launceþ heiȝe her hemmes wiþ babelyng in stretes.
?a1705 tr. M. Le Faucheur Ess. Action of Orator xiii. 201 'Tis is impertinent..to keep them [sc. the hands] in perpetual motion. This would run you foul upon that vice which the Antients have call'd the babbling of the Hands.
1926 W. C. DuBois Essent. Publ. Speaking xiv. 137 At first it might seem as though something inside you broke loose... The strangeness will soon wear off. Don't carry it to the point where it becomes a ‘babbling of the hands’.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2011; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
babblingadj.
/ˈbabl̩ɪŋ/, /ˈbablɪŋ/, U.S. /ˈbæb(ə)lɪŋ/ 1.
a. That talks rapidly and continuously in a foolish, excited, or incomprehensible way; chattering, prating, tattling; (also) full of or characterized by babble.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > speech > loquacity or talkativeness > [adjective]
wordyeOE
talewisec1200
i-worded?c1225
babblinga1250
cacklinga1250
chatteringa1250
speakfula1250
word-wooda1250
of many wordsc1350
janglingc1374
tatteringc1380
tongueya1382
ganglinga1398
readya1400
jargaunt1412
talkative1432
open-moutheda1470
clattering1477
trattling?a1513
windy1513
popping1528
smatteringa1529
rattle?1529
communicablea1533
blab1552
gaggling1553
long-tongued?1553
prittle-prattle1556
pattering1558
talking1560
bobling1566
gabbling1566
verbal1572
piet1573
twattling1573
flibber gibber1575
babblative1576
tickle-tongued1577
tattling1581
buzzing1587
long-winded1589
multiloquous1591
discoursive1599
rattling1600
glib1602
flippant1605
talkful1605
nimble-tongued1608
tongue-ripe1610
fliperous1611
garrulous?1611
futile1612
overspeaking1612
feather-tongueda1618
tongue-free1617
long-breatheda1628
well-breathed1635
multiloquious1640
untongue-tied1640
unretentive1650
communicative1651
linguacious1651
glibbed1654
largiloquent1656
multiloquent1656
parlagea1657
loose-clacked1661
nimble-chop1662
twit-twat1665
over-talkativea1667
loquacious1667
loudmouth1668
conversable1673
gash1681
narrative1681
chappy1693
apposite1701
conversative1703
gabbit1710
lubricous1715
gabby?1719
ventose1721
taleful1726
chatty?1741
blethering1759
renable1781
fetch-fire1784
conversational1799
conversant1803
gashing1808
long-lunged1815
talky1815
multi-loquacious1819
prolegomenous1822
talky-talky1831
nimble-mouthed1836
slipper1842
speechful1842
gassy1843
in great force1849
yattering1859
babbly1860
irreticent1864
chattable1867
lubrical1867
chattery1869
loose-mouthed1872
chinny1883
tongue-wagging1885
yappy1909
big-mouthed1914
loose-lipped1919
ear-bashing1945
ear-bending1946
yackety-yacking1953
nattering1959
yacking1959
woofy1960
the mind > mental capacity > intelligibility > absence of meaning > nonsense, rubbish > empty, idle talk > [adjective] > engaging in idle talk
babblinga1250
chatteringa1250
drivellinga1475
clattering1477
trattling?a1513
prating1528
bluddering1553
chatting1589
mouthy1589
dribbling1593
tinkling1625
stultiloquious1683
havering1720
vaniloquent1727
haverela1774
havering1808
stultiloquent1845
yattering1859
blethery1889
blithering1889
yackety-yacking1953
yacketing1958
nattering1959
yacking1959
chopsy1974
a1250 (?a1200) Ancrene Riwle (Nero) (1952) 43 A scorn to totinde & to hercwile & to babelinde & to spekefule ancren.
c1440 (c1395) G. Chaucer Merchant/Squire Link (Cambr. Ii.3.26) (1940) l. 2428 But of hir tonge a bablyng shrewe is she.
?1518 A. Barclay tr. D. Mancinus Myrrour Good Maners sig. B.ivv With wordes superflue The knottes intrycate, of bablynge sophystry In subtyll conclusions, the wysest to subdue.
a1585 P. Hume Flyting with Montgomerie (Tullibardine) 657 in G. Stevenson Poems A. Montgomerie (1910) 176 Sick ane traitling tratour, And baibling blasphimatour, wes nevir formit of natour.
1594 W. Shakespeare Titus Andronicus iv. ii. 149 A long tongude babling Gossip.
1603 W. Fowldes Strange Battell Frogs & Mise sig. B2v The babbling prayses of the vulgar vayne I nought esteeme.
1653 T. Urquhart tr. F. Rabelais 2nd Bk. Wks. xi. 75 The babling tattle, and fond fibs, seditiously raised between the gibblegablers, and Accursian gibberish-mongers.
1734 A. Pope Epist. to Arbuthnot 300 Such babling blockheads.
1762 T. Leland Longsword I. iii. i. 146 What officious babbling slave hath flattered thee with the lying story that Lord William lives no longer.
1854 H. H. Milman Hist. Lat. Christianity I. iii. v. 405 His degradation was concealed from a babbling and censorious world.
1866 Meliora 9 32 A babbling speech will sometimes be forgiven, because the speaker may yet be of a loving and faithful spirit.
1939 G. Biddle Amer. Artist's Story 42 Annie Deane had immediately wormed herself into the intimacy of this charming but babbling young person.
1960 Ebony June 35/1 A babbling burglar was telling a gripping tale of police malfeasance.
2007 R. Smith Peak 114 A camera in my face and a microphone boom dangling above my head turned me into a babbling idiot.
b. Of a bird: chattering, chirping; that chatters habitually.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > birds > sound or bird defined by > [adjective] > making other type of sound
groaning1398
rouping1559
babbling1578
jugging1598
chucking1734
gallowing1830
a-crow1868
clanging1871
the world > physical sensation > hearing and noise > degree, kind, or quality of sound > faintness or weakness > [adjective] > murmuring sound
murmuring1530
babbling1578
murmurous1582
mutterous1582
hummering1637
simmering1673
remurmuring1740
muttering1842
the world > animals > mammals > group Unguiculata or clawed mammal > family Canidae > hound > [adjective] > (not) making sound > crying too loudly
babbling1578
bawling1594
mouthy1936
1578 T. Churchyard tr. Ovid Three First Bookes De Tristibus (new ed.) iii. xii. f. 26v Bablinge byrdes wt tongue vntaught, do chaunt with notes so newe.
?1610 J. Fletcher Faithfull Shepheardesse iii. sig. F1v Here neuer durst the bablinge Cuckoe spitt.
1732 R. Lewis Food for Criticks in Pennsylvania Gaz. 10–17 July Observe the bluebird for a roundelay, The chatt'ring pie, or ever babling jay.
1809 S. T. Coleridge Friend 7 Sept. 64 The babbling Magpye and ominous Screech-owl.
1997 Washington Post (Nexis) 31 Jan. n63 After a while you wish they would all shut up, the babbling birds and the smarty pants birder.
c. Chiefly Hunting. Of a dog, esp. a foxhound: barking, yelping, ‘giving tongue’; that barks frequently or without reason. Now rare.
ΚΠ
1609 T. Ravenscroft Pammelia 28 Beware thy babling hounds stray not abroad, for angring of thy Lady.
1735 W. Somervile Chace i. 281 A lagging Line Of babling Curs.
1779 Tears of Britannia: Solemn Appeal 37 Made ranting—like a loose, babbling Hound.
1838 Bentley's Misc. (Amer. ed.) Dec. 600 If they applaud..without judgment or discrimination, they will be treated by the audience as ‘babbling’ hounds are treated by the rest of the pack.
1896 Badminton Mag. Jan. 104 The otter-hound is a large, rough-coated, patient, babbling hound, with a fine tongue.
1924 Hold Hard! Hounds Please! 104 The babbling hound does far less harm than the silent one.
2.
a. Uttering inarticulate or indistinct sounds; esp. (of a baby or young child) making rudimentary attempts at speech. Also: of the nature of such utterance. Cf. babble v.1 2a.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > speech > manner of speaking > [adjective] > hasty or confused
blabberingc1410
babbling1556
sputtering1691
1556 J. Heywood Spider & Flie v. sig. Cii This vrchin of eyght weekes olde, It is a babling brat aboue all other.
1579 L. Tomson tr. J. Calvin Serm. Epist. S. Paule to Timothie & Titus 187/1 The Papists will pray in a mumbling and babling sort.
1654 D. Dickson Brief Explic. Last 50 Psalmes cii. 8 The Lord suffereth his babling children to speak to him in their owne forme of speech.
1787 ‘J. Clinker’ Oration Virtues Old Women 4 Babling bubly bairns, crying piece minny, porrich minny.
1795 Let. from Yeoman of Bucks. to Marquis of Buckingham 10 Thy rights and thy liberties, garnish the slippery leading-strings of the babbling infant.
1828 W. Scott Fair Maid of Perth iv, in Chron. Canongate 2nd Ser. III. 85 The babbling cry of childhood.
1890 M. O. Stanton Syst. Pract. & Sci. Physiognomy II. ii. ii. 654 Vocality, or the ability to speak as simply as the babbling infant, is the most elementary form of human expression.
1938 I. Goldberg Wonder of Words i. 6 The most savage of tribes to-day is far advanced beyond what primal, babbling man must have been.
1964 Jet 9 Apr. 29 Thousands of lonely, babbling and cooing babies become retarded because nobody talks to them.
2005 N. Scott Special Needs, Special Horses ii. xxviii. 184 As a toddler he was mostly mute. He did some babbling baby talk, but he didn't call me mama or anything.
b. Of a thing: making an indistinct, subdued, continuous sound; esp. (of flowing water) murmuring, gurgling.
ΚΠ
1594 W. Shakespeare Titus Andronicus ii. iii. 17 The babling eccho mocks the hounds. View more context for this quotation
1774 E. Long Hist. Jamaica II. ii. ix. 222 Trees, among which fome impetuous river rolls its foaming flood, or babbling rivulet, gently trails along in glittering meanders.
1815 W. Wordsworth White Doe of Rylstone iii. 57 The scorn Of babbling winds.
1858 F. F. Dally Channel Islands i. vii. 86 Between the lofty precipices..a babbling stream pursues its silvery way.
1875 A. R. Garvie Thistledown 75 They walked beneath the babbling leaves.
1906 A. E. Barr Man Between iii. vii. 163 A large garden, at the bottom of which ran a babbling little river—a cheerful tongue of life in the sweet, silent place.
1993 Independent on Sunday 4 Apr. (Review Suppl.) 26/3 A fake village green, complete with mossy stone bridge and babbling stream.
Compounds
babbling brook n. [in sense (b) rhyming slang for cook n.1] (a) a small, fast-running stream (cf. sense 2b); (b) Australian and New Zealand slang a cook, esp. an army cook, or one who caters for a party or camp of musterers, shearers, etc.; cf. babbler n. 5 (now chiefly historical).
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > food > food manufacture and preparation > cooking > cook > [noun] > cook on sheep station
slusher1890
slushy1900
babbler1904
babbling brook1913
1728 J. Thomson Spring 32 Most delight In unfrequented Glooms, or shaggy Banks, Steep, and divided by a babbling brook.
1835 Dublin Penny Jrnl. 23 Feb. 277/2 At a little distance before her door ran a sweet clear babbling brook.
1913 Bulletin (Sydney) 25 Sept. 24/1 I'll touch the babblin' brook here for..scran today..and work the other sheds down to Yanco.
1921 E. I. Lord Ballads of Bung (1976) 14 Ryan, T.P., ex-soldier, a ‘babbling brook’ at the war.
1963 Weekly News (Auckland) 5 June 37/1 That got us started on the ‘babbling brooks’. I've got a few memories of station cooks.
1990 Sports Illustr. 2 Apr. 68/1 It's just a friendly little 155-yard par-3 with a babbling brook.
2008 Geelong (Victoria) News (Nexis) 16 Apr. 2 Baitlayers and Babbling Brooks An Exhibition About Australia's Shearers' Cooks explores the history, stories, characters and recipes of the tireless workers.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2011; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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n.1?c1430
n.21440adj.a1250