galimatias

See also: galimatías

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French galimatias, first attested in 1653 in Sir Thomas Urquhart's translation of Rabelais's works.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ˌɡæləˈmeɪʃi.əs/, /-ˈmæti.əs/

Noun

galimatias (uncountable)

1. nonsense, gobbledygook

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:nonsense

   • 1888, Henry James, chapter 5, in The Reverberator, Macmillan and Co.:

     […] and the old lady listened in silence, solemnly, rather coldly, as if she thought such talk a good deal of a galimatias: she belonged to the old-fashioned school and held that a young lady was sufficiently catalogued when it was said that she had a dazzling complexion or the finest eyes in the world.

2. confused mixture; hodgepodge

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:hodgepodge

Translations

gobbledygook

• Catalan: galimaties (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 胡言亂語／胡言乱语 (zh) (húyánluànyǔ),

• Czech: galimatyáš (cs) m
• French: galimatias (fr) f
• German: Gallimathias (de) m or n
• Polish: gmatwanina (pl) f
• Portuguese: galimatias (pt) m
• Russian: галиматья́ (ru) f (galimatʹjá)
• Spanish: galimatías (es) m
• Swedish: gallimatias (sv) c

French

FWOTD – 2 March 2023

Alternative forms

• galimathias (obsolete)

Etymology

Unknown, first attested in Michel de Montaigne (1580) and other late 16th-century authors. There exist many very different hypotheses. The Trésor de la langue française informatisé cites sources that reject most of these hypotheses, including the only one in the dictionary of the Spanish Real Academia, which presents this as if it were not just one of many conjectures: "From Ancient Greek κατά Ματθαῖον (katá Matthaîon, “according to Matthew”), in reference to the way he describes the genealogy at the beginning of his Gospel." The Trésor comments it is commonly believed to be from Late Latin ballēmatia (“dance; obscene song”). Coromines and Pascual prefer a derivation from Latin Joseph ab Arimathia (“Joseph of Arimathea”), where Arimathia was thought of as an exotic place or country, then applied to incomprehensible speech, while also stating that the etymology may never be known with confidence, and that it appears the term is an invention of Michel de Montaigne's.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡa.li.ma.tja/, /ɡa.li.ma.tjɑ/

• (file)

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

galimatias m (plural galimatias)

1. nonsense, gobbledygook, galimatias
   • 1897, Émile Laurent, “Les verbes nouveaux”, in La Poésie décadente devant la science psychiatrique:

     Voilà qui est déjà bien obscur. Les vers suivants sont absolument incompréhensibles. C’est du pur galimatias.

     This is already very obscure. The following lines are absolutely incomprehensible. They are pure gibberish.

Descendants

• → Catalan: galimaties
• → Czech: galimatyáš
• → Danish: galimatias
• → English: galimatias
• → German: Gallimathias
• → Polish: galimatias
• → Portuguese: galimatias
• → Russian: галиматья (galimatʹja)
• → Spanish: galimatías
• → Slovak: galimatiáš
• → Swedish: gallimatias, gallimattias

Further reading

• “galimatias”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Polish

Etymology

Borrowed from French galimatias.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡa.liˈmat.jas/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -atjas
• Syllabification: ga‧li‧mat‧ias

Noun

galimatias m inan

1. (colloquial) mishmash, hotchpotch

   Synonym: miszmasz

Declension

Declension of galimatias

	singular	plural
nominative	galimatias	galimatiasy
genitive	galimatiasu	galimatiasów
dative	galimatiasowi	galimatiasom
accusative	galimatias	galimatiasy
instrumental	galimatiasem	galimatiasami
locative	galimatiasie	galimatiasach
vocative	galimatiasie	galimatiasy

Further reading

• galimatias in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• galimatias in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Portuguese

Etymology

Borrowed from French galimatias.

Noun

galimatias m (invariable)

1. galimatias; gobbledygook (meaningless speech)

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French galimatias.

Noun

galimatias n (uncountable)

1. galimatias

Declension

declension of galimatias (singular only)

	singular
n gender	indefinite articulation	definite articulation
nominative/accusative	(un) galimatias	galimatiasul
genitive/dative	(unui) galimatias	galimatiasului
vocative	galimatiasule