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. geringonça. 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. Longf., 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 rhymes. rare.
1570. Levins, Manip., 163/42. Iargon, rime, fabula, metrica.
1891. C. T. C. James, 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. trans. 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. 65. [The pagans of antiquity] could discover in a foreign language nothing but a ‘barbarous’ jargon. Ibid., v. 174. 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, I. 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 Jargonal a., of the nature of jargon or sound without sense; Jargonish 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.
