galimatias
Jan. 18th, 2013 07:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
prettygoodwordgalimatias (gal-uh-MAY-shee-uhs, gal-uh-MAT-ee-uhs) - n., confused or unintelligible talk, gibberish.
First used in English (without the final s) in 1653 in a translation of Montaigne, borrowed from French where its first attested use is by Montaigne (in an essay published in 1580). The origin is unknown, but theories include medieval Latin ballematia, meaning an obscene song, from the same root as gave us gallimaufry, a confused jumble, originally an unappetizing dish, and a supposed disparaging slang term for a doctoral candidate from Latin gallus, a cock + Greak mathia, learning. It's a bit of a farrago, really.
---L.
First used in English (without the final s) in 1653 in a translation of Montaigne, borrowed from French where its first attested use is by Montaigne (in an essay published in 1580). The origin is unknown, but theories include medieval Latin ballematia, meaning an obscene song, from the same root as gave us gallimaufry, a confused jumble, originally an unappetizing dish, and a supposed disparaging slang term for a doctoral candidate from Latin gallus, a cock + Greak mathia, learning. It's a bit of a farrago, really.
---L.
