▪ I. jargon, n.1
(ˈdʒɑːgən)
Also: 4 iargoun, girgoun, -un, 5 gargoun, (7 ier-, jur-, gergon, jargone).
[a. OF. jargon, -oun, gargon, ghargun, gergon, warbling of birds, prattle, chatter, talk; = It. gergo, gergone; cf. Sp. gerigonza, formerly girgonz (Diez), Pg. geringon{cced}a. Of uncertain origin (see Littré, & Diez s.v. gergo); perh. containing the same radical garg-, jarg- as jargoillier: see jargle.]
1. The inarticulate utterance of birds, or a vocal sound resembling it; twittering, chattering.
This early sense, which became obsolete in the 15th cent., has been revived in modern literature, sometimes with a mixture of sense 5; cf. jargon v. 1.
| c 1386 Chaucer Merch. T. 604 He was al coltissh ful of ragerye And ful of Iargon [v.rr. Girgoun, -un] as a flekked pye. 1390 Gower Conf. II. 264 Sche [Medea] made many a wonder soun..And riht so as hir jargoun strangeth, In sondri wise hir forme changeth. c 1425 Seven Sag. (P.) 3148 Thre ravenes hyghte adoun, And made a gret gargoun. 1830 Longfellow Return of Spring 6 With beast and bird the forest rings, Each in his jargon cries or sings. 1853 Kane Grinnell Exp. xliii. (1856) 396 The snow-birds increase in numbers... It is delightful to hear their sweet jargon. |
2. A jingle or assonance of rimes. rare.
| 1570 Levins Manip. 163/42 Iargon, rime, fabula, metrica. 1891 C. T. C. James Rom. Rigmarole 103 Later that evening some Power sent me to my writing-table, with a jargon of rhymes in my head. |
3. Unintelligible or meaningless talk or writing; nonsense, gibberish. (Often a term of contempt for something the speaker does not understand.)
| 1340–70 Alex. & Dind. 462 Swiche wordus of wise we wilnun to lere, Þere nis no iargoun, no iangle, ne iuggementis falce. 1624 Bedell Lett. iii. 66 Which we must remember the Romanists vnderstand by this Iargon. 1658 Bramhall Consecr. Bps. iii 42 It had bene a thousand times more materiall then all this Iargon. 1678 Cudworth Intell. Syst. i. v. 651 When Religion and Theology..is made Philosophy, then is it all meer jargon and insignificant non-sence. 1722 Quincy Lex. Physico-Med. (ed. 2) 12 Alchymy..is found to be mere Jargon and Imposture. 1816 J. Wilson City of Plague ii. iii. 100 Cease, cease that jargon About sights seen in the city. 1876 Fawcett Pol. Econ. iv. vii. (ed. 5) 628 The laws of rating [in the case of railways and water-works] are simply a mass of heterogeneous and contradictory jargon. |
† 4. A conventional method of writing or conversing by means of symbols otherwise meaningless; a cipher, or other system of characters or signs having an arbitrary meaning. Obs.
| 1594 Bacon in Life & Lett. (1862) I. 284 The letters aforesaid, written in jargon or verbal cipher. 1643 5 Yrs. K. James in Harl. Misc. (Malh.) V. 398 They had cyphers and jargons for the king and queen, and great men of the realm; things seldom used but either by Princes or their Confederates. 1678 Butler Hud. Lady's Answ. to Knt. 76, I..can unriddle, by their tones, Their mystic cabals, and jargones. 1708 Burnet Lett. (ed. 3) 250 She [a deaf child] had formed a sort of Jargon in which she could hold conversation. |
5. A barbarous, rude, or debased language or variety of speech; a ‘lingo’; used esp. of a hybrid speech arising from a mixture of languages. Also applied contemptuously to a language by one who does not understand it.
| 1643 Sir T. Browne Relig. Med. ii. §8 Besides the Jargon and Patois of severall Provinces, I understand no lesse then six Languages. 1697 tr. C'tess D'Aunoy's Trav. (1706) 131 She now mixes Italian, English, and Spanish with her own natural Language, and this makes such a Jargon [etc.]. 1725 De Foe Voy. round World (1840) 203 Others had the Levant Jargon, which they call Lingua Frank. 1755 Johnson Dict. Pref. §86 A mingled dialect, like the jargon which serves the traffickers on the Mediterranean and Indian coasts. 1874 Sayce Compar. Philol. ii. 67 They [the pagans of antiquity] could discover in a foreign language nothing but a barbarous jargon. Ibid. v. 184 The Negro jargon of the United States. 1874 Green Short Hist. vi. §3. 288 ‘Oxford Latin’ became proverbial for a jargon in which the very tradition of grammar had been lost. |
6. Applied contemptuously to any mode of speech abounding in unfamiliar terms, or peculiar to a particular set of persons, as the language of scholars or philosophers, the terminology of a science or art, or the cant of a class, sect, trade, or profession.
| 1651 Hobbes Leviath. iv. xlvi, Abstract essences and substantiall formes. For the interpreting of which Iargon, there is need of somewhat more than ordinary attention. 1704 Swift's T. Tub Bookseller to Rdr., It would..pass for little more than the cant or jargon of the trade. 1717 Bullock Woman is a riddle ii. 18, I see, Mr. Vulture, you are a perfect master in the jargon of the Law. 1762 Kames Elem. Crit. (1833) 485 Space and time have occasioned much metaphysical jargon. 1825 Lytton Zicci ii, I should tell you in their despicable jargon that my planet sat darkly in your house of life. 1889 Jessopp Coming of Friars vii. 324 The jargon of the German mystic was exactly what he wanted in his present state of mind. |
7. A medley or ‘babel’ of sounds.
| 1711 Addison Spect. No. 165 ¶1 Our Soldiers..send us over Accounts of their Performances in a Jargon of Phrases, which they learn among their conquered Enemies. 1806–7 J. Beresford Miseries Hum. Life (1826) iv. i, That savage jargon of yells, brays and screams familiarly but feebly termed ‘The cries of London’. 1837 Carlyle Fr. Rev. I. iii. viii, Dissonant hubbub there is; jargon as of Babel. |
b. transf. Any mixture of heterogeneous elements. rare.
| 1710 Addison Whig Exam. No. 4. 37 Such a Jargon of Ideas, such an Inconsistency of Notions, such a Confusion of Particles that rather puzzle than connect the Sense. |
8. attrib. and Comb.
| 1727–46 Thomson Summer 1544 The gloom Of cloister'd monks and jargon-teaching schools. 1729 Savage Wanderer 1, Sudden a thousand different jargon-sounds, Like jangling bells, harsh-mingling grate the ear. 1770 Barrington in Phil. Trans. LX. 60 Little Mozart..immediately began five or six lines of a jargon recitative proper to introduce a love song. 1887 H. Knollys Sk. Life Japan 281 At the end of four months I should have been able..to go ahead with what I may call jargon fluency. |
Hence ˈjargonal a., of the nature of jargon or sound without sense; ˈjargonish a., resembling or characteristic of a jargon.
| 1816 Q. Rev. XVI. 28 That inflated and jargonish style which has of late prevailed. 1831 in Mirror XVII. 299/1 Away, then, with the jargonal pretence that English singers cannot acquire a good and pure Italian pronunciation. |
▪ II. jargon, jargoon, n.2
(ˈdʒɑːgən, dʒɑːˈguːn)
[a. F. jargon (1762 in Dict. Acad.), ad. It. giargone (Hatz.-Darm.). Ulterior derivation obscure: Hatz.-Darm. compare OF. jagonce, jargunce (in St. Brandan), variants of jacinth (see jacounce); but most etymologists identify it ultimately with zircon, Pg. zarcāo, Arab. zarqūn. (Both the hyacinth or jacinth and the jargon are varieties of zircon.)]
A translucent, colourless, or smoky variety of the mineral zircon, found in Sri Lanka.
| α 1769 Pub. Advertiser 29 May 3/4 Rough and polished Emeralds..Topazes, Jargoons. 1815 Hone Every-day Bk. I. 1526 These borders are studded with..jargoon diamonds. 1883 Church Prec. Stones iv. 28 The diamond and the jargoon do not improve or bring out each other's qualities, for they have too many points in common. 1884 F. J. Britten Watch & Clockm. 215 The Zircon, the Hyacinth, and the Jargoon are silicates of zirconia. |
| β 1797 Monthly Mag. III. 206 The hyacinth..consists..more than six-tenths of its weight of a peculiar earth, now known under the name of jargon, zircon, or circonia. 1868–72 Watts Dict. Chem. V. 1079 The name hyacinth includes the bright-coloured varieties of zircon;..the greyish or brownish kinds are called zirconite. A variety from Ceylon, which is colourless, or has only a smoky tinge, and is therefore sold for inferior diamonds, is sometimes called jargon. |
▪ III. jargon, v.
(ˈdʒɑːgən)
Also 4 iargoune, 5 -onne, (7 gargon).
[a. OF. jarg-, gargonner, -ouner, F. jargonner, to warble, chatter, jabber, talk, f. jargon jargon n.1]
1. intr. To warble, twitter, chatter. Obs. from 15th to 19th c.: see jargon n.1 1.
| ? a 1366 Chaucer Rom. Rose 716 These birdes..Laies of loue, full well souning Thei songen in her iargoning. 1390 Gower Conf. II. 318 She withall no word may soune But chitre and as a brid iargoune. 1480 Caxton Ovid's Met. xiv. xiii, The birdes that iargonned on the ryver..made her to slepe. 1798 Coleridge Anc. Mar. v. xvi, All little birds that are How they seem'd to fill the sea and air With their sweet jargoning! 1849 Longfellow Kavanagh xv. Pr. Wks. 1886 II. 335 A cage, in which sundry canary⁓birds..were jargoning together. 1892 A. Lang Grass of Parnassus 108 Far in dim fields cicalas jargoned. |
b. trans. To utter by warbling, warble.
| 1894 Tablet 22 Dec. 966 Never mavis or merle Jargoned such roundelays. |
2. intr. To utter jargon; to talk unintelligibly.
| 1570 Levins Manip. 164/42 Iargon, nugari. 1823 Blackw. Mag. XIII. 69 If he jargons thus, he can expect nothing else. 1850 Carlyle Latter-d. Pamph. ii. 29 Disappear, I say; away, and jargon no more in that manner. |
b. trans. To utter in a jargon; to prate about in a jargon.
| 1805 [see below]. 1825 J. Wilson Noct. Ambr. Wks. 1855 I. 31 In such slang he jargons the characters of Shakespeare and Milton. |
Hence ˈjargoned ppl. a., ˈjargoning vbl. n. and ppl. a.; ˈjargoner, one who uses jargon.
| ? a 1366 [see 1]. 1623 Cockeram, Gargoning, strange speaking. 1798 [see 1]. 1805 Roberdean in Spirit Publ. Jrnls. (1806) IX. 249 The jargon'd phrase. 1837 Carlyle Fr. Rev. I. iii. iv, Mere idle jargoning, and sound and fury. 1875 Howells Foregone Concl. 18 His ear was taken by the vibrant jargoning of the boatmen. 1890 O. Crawfurd Round the Calendar in Portugal 28 He [the serin] fills the air of spring and early summer with his eager jargoning. 1893 W. G. Collingwood Life Ruskin I. 110 He took it out of the hands of adepts and initiated jargoners. |