The word for impenetrable official language was launched by an official, in an official memo.
In late March 1944, Maury Maverick was chairman of the Smaller War Plants Corporation, a U.S. wartime agency. He had already served as a congressman for Texas from 1935 to 1939 and as mayor of San Antonio from 1939 to 1941. Tired of the reports crossing his desk, he sent his staff a memo on writing clearly.
The memo asked for short documents with the point up front. Then came the line that made history: "Stay off gobbledygook language. It only fouls people up." According to Etymonline, he also joked that anyone using the words "activation" or "implementation" would be shot.
The press loved it. A United Press story reproducing the memo ran in newspapers around the country on March 31. A Washington Post editorial took up the word on April 14.
Where did the word come from? Maverick explained himself in the New York Times Magazine on May 21, 1944. He said he was probably thinking of an old turkey gobbler back in Texas, "always gobbledy gobbling and strutting with ludicrous pomposity." Merriam-Webster accepts the turkey link, describing the word as an irregular formation from "gobble," the noise a turkey makes.
The story may not be complete. A column in the Chronicle of Higher Education points out that a similar word already existed in American slang, with a vulgar meaning. Whether Maverick knew it is unknown. What is certain is that his meaning, pompous and baffling jargon, is the one that took over.
The word has a family connection to another famous coinage. Maverick's grandfather Samuel Maverick was a Texas landowner whose unbranded cattle gave English the word "maverick," first for a stray calf and later for an independent-minded person. A grandfather and his grandson each gave English a word.
The coinage also inspired imitators. "Bafflegab," another name for the same kind of language, appeared in 1952. The British usually spell the word "gobbledegook," and Merriam-Webster lists that as a variant. Either way, the sound does the work: it is hard to say without sounding a little ridiculous, which is the point.