February 26, 2023

FEB 26, (re)duplication: claptrap

 


Authors' Note: The disparaging term gobbledegook was first used in 1944 by a Texas politician named Maverick (scion of the original staunchly independent thinker). Its meaning — pompous, overinflated language — gave rise a few year later to the equivalent bafflegab. These expressions, employing repetition of sounds, have a musical and amusing quality, as do their venerable synonyms --hogwash, poppycock, balderdash, bunkum and tommyrot, but only their close cousin claptrap (alternately clap-trap) -- would qualify as a reduplication.


Readers willing to go down an internet  rabbit-hole HERE can easily get to our other nine short verses dealing with specific reduplications, as well as three fairly lengthy patter-songs about this fascinating linguistic phenomenon.

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