Today's Word:
Jargon (Noun)

Pronunciation: ['jah(r)-gn] Listen

Definition: (1) The twittering and chattering of birds; (2) a specialty dialect, such as medical jargon and legal jargon; (3) unintelligible gibberish.

Usage: Today's word is often replaced by the suffix –ese: Newspaper jargon becomes "journalese" while legal jargon becomes "legalese." The connection that English-speakers see between jargons like these and languages like Chinese and Japanese—the origin of the suffix—should be clear.

Suggested Usage: Henry W. Longfellow wrote in The Return of Spring (1830) "With beast and bird the forest rings, Each in his jargon cries or sings." Since Longfellow, however, this word has seldom been used in this sense (1). No odium, however, attaches to the use of this word in referring to the "sociolect" of a professional (2), "I came in with an ingrown toenail but when I heard the doctors discussing it in medical jargon, I almost had a heart attack." You can see from this example where the pejorative sense (3) originated.

Etymology: We borrowed today's word immediately from Old French jargon (also spelled "gargon" and "gergon") "the warbling of birds, prattle, chatter," akin to Italian "gergo," and Spanish "gorjeo." The [g] would be pronounced [j] before [e] but not [a]. The alternation of the [j] with [g] in French, however, suggests it might be akin to gargouiller "to gurgle or gargle," which comes from an ancestor o f gorge "throat." The root of this word shows up everywhere: German "gurgeln," Swedish "gurgla," Dutch "gorgelen," Italian "gorgogliare," all meaning pretty much the same thing (note also Russian gorlo "throat"). (Pamela McInnes of St. Paul, Minnesota, thought some clarification of a word that stands for a lack of clarity would be of interest to us all.)

   –Dr. Language, yourDictionary