7

This is a quite popular term in Italian. I am aware it is related to some specific Italian cultural element, so it is rather likely that a straightforward translation doesn't exist.

Supercazzola is a nonsense, a phrase without any meaning, which contains invented words, which is used as a joke, in order to mock or confuse the person to whom the phrase is addressed.

Freely translated from wikipedia.

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8

The wikipedia page you refer has a Spanish translation which is similar to the French word galimatias, so I guess it's the closest translation. I don't hear it very often, though.

Apparently embrouillamini is considered as a synonym but may not be that suitable for abstract concepts.

I would rather recommend the more frequent charabia, or maybe sabir (although it may be offensive to certain populations, I don't know).

I don't think any of these carry the idea of being intentionally deceptive, though.

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  • The English translation given by wikipedia is gobbledegook, which is also usually translated into French by charabia. – None Dec 14 '11 at 19:35
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    @laure That would be gibberish. – Knu Dec 15 '11 at 0:00
  • Wikipedia English transaltion is somewhat imprecise, in my opinion "gobbledegook" and "supercazzola" are not the same. They have in common beeing hard to understand, but not much more. – Paolo Dec 15 '11 at 14:09
  • (+1) for charabia that is mostly used. – RomainValeri May 15 '13 at 6:47
  • +1 for charabia which is the most common in these times. But it lacks the intentionality of the Italian word though. – user13512 Apr 24 '17 at 22:49

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