babelism

Etymology

From Babel + -ism.

babelism means A chaotic situation where people cannot communicate because of different languages. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 89 out of 100.

Why “babelism” is a great word

BABELISM — [Noun] A state of chaotic unintelligibility arising from a confusion of languages or of competing, mutually incomprehensible ideas. From the proper name Babel, referring to the biblical city and tower where languages were confounded, combined with the suffix -ism (denoting a state or condition). Unlike polyglotism, which denotes a harmonious facility with many tongues, or cacophony, which is merely a discord of sounds, babelism is the specific failure of meaning to bridge the gap between speaker and listener. It is the roar of a crowded terminal where no announcement can be understood, the political debate where every term is defined in bad faith, and the family gathering where old grievances speak in a private dialect—a profound loneliness that exists not in silence, but in the noise of untranslated selves.

noun

A chaotic situation where people cannot communicate because of different languages.