Confused, distorted, or unclear because information got mixed up or corrupted during transmission or communication.
From Middle English and Old Italian 'garbellare' (to sift), originally referring to cleaning grain. By the 16th century, it evolved to mean 'to confuse or mix up' information, like badly sifting through data.
The game of 'telephone' is basically intentional garbling—your brain naturally reconstructs incomplete or unclear messages by filling in blanks with what it expects to hear, which is why rumors spread so easily.
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