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 Ind., 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 atter 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 Jabbering vbl. sb. and ppl. a. Jabbering crow, a small species of crow common in Jamaica (Corvus Jamaicensis). Jabberingly adv., in 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 Lacshmí, Wks. 1799, VI. 364. Jabb’ring spectres o’er her traces glide.
1875. Whitney, Life Lang., xiv. 292. To study the jabberings of monkeys.
