▪ 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.
| 1499 Promp. 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. 1655 Fuller Ch. Hist. i. iv. §23 Which Infant..doth not jabber so strangely, but that she is perfectly understood by her Parent. 1678 Phillips (ed. 4), To Jabber, a word vulgarly used for to prattle, chat, or talk. 1748 Smollett Rod. Rand. lvi, He had brought a gentleman who could jabber with her in French. 1866 Mrs. 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.
| c 1817 Hogg Tales & Sk. IV. 41 Allanson made some sound..as if attempting to speak, but his tongue refused its office, and he only jabbered. a 1859 Macaulay Hist. Eng. xxiii. V. 76 The fool who jabbered at his feet, the monkey which grinned at the back of his chair. 1860 Trollope West Indies xx. 310 In the huge trees the monkeys hung jabbering. 1894 Hall 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.
| 1532 More Confut. Tindale vi. Wks. 665 Whatsoeuer the Iewes would iaber or iangle agayn. 1715 Bentley Serm. x. 348 They must jabber their Credos and Pater-Nosters at Home. 1716 Addison 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. 1854 H. 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).
| 1499 Promp. Parv. 487/2 (Pynson), Taterynge or iaberinge [Harl. MS. iauerynge, Winch. MS. iaperynge], garritus. 1543 Bale Course Rom. Fox 43 b, Latyne Iabberynge and wawlynge, accordynge to the offyce of saynt Antonynes personage. 1689 Hickeringill Ceremony-monger 29 His Singing-Boys with their alternate Jabberings and Mouthings. 1728 Pope Dunc. ii. 237 'Twas chatt'ring, grinning, mouthing, jabb'ring all. a 1795 Sir W. Jones Hymn to Lacshm{iacu} Wks. 1799 VI. 364 Jabb'ring spectres o'er her traces glide. 1875 Whitney 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.
| 1727 Swift 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. 1801 W. Taylor in Monthly Mag. XII. 586 A sea-port jabber, formed..by the mishmash of a hundred dialects. 1838 J. L. Stephens Trav. Greece, etc. 45/1 He..was utterly ignorant of any language but his own; despised all foreigners, and detested their ‘jabber’. 1893 Mrs. C. Praed Outlaw & Lawmaker II. xvi. 85 Prepared for what she called a ‘jabber’. |