Annoyed by Embololalia

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It’s another minicast from A Way with Words. I’m Martha Barnette.

So, are you, like one of those, you know, like people who, you know, like they use a lot of filler words in, like, their conversation?

Well, if so, I apologize for that last sentence, of course, but here’s how I’m going to make it up to you.

I’m going to tell you a really cool, fancy term for all those filler words.

And it happens to be a word that’s a whole lot of fun to say.

Alan from Washington, D.C. phoned us to talk about it.

I have a question about a word that I ran across that I’d never seen before, and I’m not entirely sure how to pronounce it, but I’ll give it a shot.

It’s embololalia.

Embololalia.

That’s pretty sexy.

It’s quite a word, and I gather it’s also spelled with an extra syllable in there, so it sometimes is spelled embololalia.

Oh, Lelia. Now, where did you run across this? I assume it wasn’t the Washington Post.

It was not the Washington Post. It was in some obscure book.

And I’ve tried to actually remember where I saw it first.

I wrote it down in a little notebook I had because it caught my attention.

And then I tried to figure out, I mean, I know basically what it means,

But I couldn’t figure out both what the root and the history of the word is

And why it’s evidently fallen out of use.

Because it seems to me, you know, it’s a very useful word.

Well, Alan, what was the context?

In which I first saw it?

Yeah.

You know, I don’t even remember that.

I just remember seeing it in some written form,

And then I remember, and I’ve since tried to Google it,

And have not found it appearing in many books on Google Books or anything.

So it doesn’t seem to be a word that is used much.

No, it doesn’t appear very often at all, does it?

No, and as I understand it, the basic meaning is it’s those meaningless filler words that people put in their speech.

You know, okay.

Imbololelia, I say that all the time.

Instead of and imbololelia.

But what I love about it is it seems like it would be awfully useful since lots of people,

What I speak as a father of a couple teenagers who seem to be using a lot of embololalia

In their speech these days.

Oh, sure, yeah.

I mean, you know, just like…

And it also sounds like what it is.

It’s sort of onomatopoetic.

It sounds like a tongue wagging.

But anyway, I can’t figure out where it came from or why it’s fallen out of use.

So I thought you would be able to help me.

There’s a couple things happening with this word.

One is it’s never really been that common,

And it’s not an official medical term nor an official scientific term.

So it’s just kind of one of those terms that somebody coined once because they needed it,

And it’s kind of persisted a little bit.

But for the most part, it’s mainly used in books about strange words,

Or it’s used by people who read books about strange words and try to assert them in their own writing.

So it’s not a common word and has never been, neither spelling of it has never been very common.

Which also explains why there is more than one spelling.

It never was used enough for one spelling to win out.

Oh, but I agree with Alan.

It’s a great word.

Yeah, yeah.

I’m going to add this because it’s a great word to say.

I think it’s memorable, too.

You know, once you connect it to a thing that everyone knows about, that there are people in this world who say as every other word or as every third word, right?

Yeah.

Well, just looking at these, I’m just looking at the word written out here.

I’m guessing it’s from Greek.

Embololalia.

Yes.

Embololalia having to do with speech, talking, like glossolalia and echolalia when people repeat words.

Coprolalia.

Coprolalia when people talk about rubbish.

Does it have any relationship to the word embolism?

It does, yes.

The first part is the root is embolus, E-M-B-O-L-U-S, which means plug or stopper.

And so if you have an embolism in your brain, it’s something that’s in the way of the normal flow of blood, right?

Yeah, and as I recall, embolism goes all the way back to a Greek word that means to throw.

And you see that B-O-L in other words, too, like hyperbole, kind of a throwing over, going over the top.

So throwing a lot of pause words into your speech.

Well, yeah, tossing things into your speech, I would think.

I don’t know.

Do you see a definition for it, Grant, someplace?

For which?

For embolalia.

I have two here, as a matter of fact.

One is the use of virtually meaningless filler words, phrases, or stammerings, or so-called hesitation forms in speech,

Whether as unconscious utterings while arranging one’s thoughts or as a vacuous, inexpressive mannerism.

For example, you know, well, like, I mean,

All summed up in embololalia.

Yes, embololalia.

And another definition, slightly different.

Introduction of insignificant words or those devoid of meaning into a spoken sentence, thus obstructing speech.

So one is kind of about the words themselves, and the other one is about the mechanism of producing speech.

By the way, lalia, that suffix at the end, could be directly translated as chatter.

So you might literally translate embololalia as cheddar stopper or cheddar plug or the plugging of cheddar, something like that.

Or tossed in.

Yeah.

That’s how I would read it.

Well, it would have made a good Tom Lehrer song, I think.

Oh, yeah, sure.

He could do an album on a word, couldn’t he?

Could have had fun with that.

Yeah, or if you forget the lyrics, just say embololalia.

Rhubarb, embololalia.

Well, that’s very helpful.

Thank you.

Well, thank you for calling about this word.

Yeah. Let us know the next time you find something in a cool, obscure book, okay?

I will. Thank you.

Thanks for calling, Sarah. Bye-bye.

Embololelia. I just love saying that word.

In fact, you know that word for a song that you can’t stop thinking about, earworm?

I think that embololelia is my new ear word.

I’m going to be thinking about that all day.

Well, is there a word that’s stuck in your ear?

You just keep thinking about it or staring at it on the page?

Well, we’d love for you to toss it into our conversation.

The number’s 1-877-929-9673.

Or send an email to words@waywordradio.org.

Thanks for listening.

I’m Martha Barnette.

Embololelia.

Embololelia.

Embololelia.