Garble

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Garble

Postby Dr. Goodword » Thu Aug 25, 2022 6:52 pm

• garble •


Pronunciation: gahr-bêl • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Verb

Meaning: 1. To distort a meaning of a communication (speech, writing, broadcast) in such a way to confuse comprehension. 2. (Obsolete) To cull, remove husks, dust, or soil; sift out the undesirable, pick out the desirable.

Notes: All the derivations from this word are based on the second, obsolete meaning. A garbler was someone who inspected commodities like grains to assure their cleanliness. Garblage was the refuse from garbling in the second sense and garbleable referred to the ability to be garbled in that sense. The family of this word in the first sense is limited to the use of the present participle, garbling, as an adjective or noun.

In Play: The new sense of garble may refer to writing: "The proposal in your last text message was garbled between your smartphone and mine." It just as handily refers to speech: "Harvey Wallbanger was so drunk after the party that his directions to his house were just garbled nonsense."

Word History: Today's Good Word comes directly from Latin garbellare "to sift", which picked it up from Arabic gharbala "sift", at the height of the spice trade. The best guess is that Arabic snitched it from late Latin cribellare "to sieve", from Latin cribrum "sieve", a word widespread among Mediterranean traders. Cribrum came from PIE krei- "to sieve", source also of Greek krinein "to sift, separate", and Irish and Scots Gaelic criathar "sieve". English certain was borrowed from the Old French word, based on the Latin verb cernere "to distinguish, sift, separate", from the same source with metathesis. The shift in the meaning of garble from "cull" to "distort" may have been triggered by a confusion with garbage. It may have resulted from the use of the word to refer to the refuse remaining after garbling in the obsolete sense. (Now let's welcome back Mike Nichols with a thank-you for an ungarbled recommendation of today's spicy Good Word.)
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David Myer
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Re: Garble

Postby David Myer » Sat Aug 27, 2022 7:45 am

A connection with garbage seems very unlikely to me. Garble has been widely used in UK for ages - garbage is very American and barely used in UK (certainly when I lived there - fifty years ago!) and only a little more in Australia.

We have other words in this 'garble' area like warble (an unintelligible although pleasant bird noise) and burble which I think is to spout inanities or similar. Perhaps garble comes from them?

In Uk we used to have dustmen but now they are refuse collection and disposal officers, I believe. We don't have trash or garbage cans; we have dustbins and rubbish bins (or did).

I wonder what the difference is between a bin and a can?

bbeeton
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Re: Garble

Postby bbeeton » Sat Aug 27, 2022 3:28 pm

David, I expect to find cans of food in a grocery store, though you would probably call them tins. As for the larger variety, the kind that would be noisily investigated at night by raccoons, they have removable lids. (And have been replaced in these parts by large, less noisy, plastic containers with attached lids, sometimes referred to as bins.) A bin, on the other hand, may have no lid at all, but be open at the top for quick and easy access.
Also, I would expect a can to be cylindrical more often than not, and a bin to be rectangular.

As for "burble" that's what brooks do when they aren't babbling.

David Myer
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Re: Garble

Postby David Myer » Tue Aug 30, 2022 3:08 am

Ahh yes, Barbara, but do you understand what they are saying, these burbling brooks? Or is it just a garbled nonsense?
Last edited by David Myer on Thu Sep 01, 2022 7:37 am, edited 1 time in total.

bnjtokyo
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Re: Garble

Postby bnjtokyo » Tue Aug 30, 2022 7:36 am

Lewis Carrol on "burble":
". . . as to 'burble', if you take the three verbs 'bleat, murmer, and warble, then select the bits I have underlined, it certainly makes 'burble', though I am afraid I can't distinctly remember having made it in that way." Since I can't underline, the underlined bits are the "b" in "bleat," the "ur" in "murmer" and the "ble" in "warble". From a December, 1877 letter from the Reverend Charles Dobson to Ms Maud Standen. I hope this explanation helps clarify the denotation of "burble."

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Slava
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Re: Garble

Postby Slava » Tue Aug 30, 2022 10:27 am

Now when did murmer become murmur?
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