bafflegab, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

bafflegab n.

[SE baffle + gab n.² (2); coined May 1952, by the assistant general counsel of the US Chamber of Commerce, Milton Smith: ‘I decided we needed a new and catchy word to describe the utter incomprehensibility, ambiguity, verbosity and complexity of government regulations’]

(US) (deliberately) unintelligible jargon, esp. as used for the purposes of obfuscation by politicians, civil servants, bureaucrats, businessmen etc.

1952		Daily Tel. 23 Jan. 4/6: A new word for lovers of officialese is bafflegab, invented by Mr. Milton A. Smith, assistant general counsel for the American Chamber of Commerce. He has won a prize for the word and its definition: ‘Multiloquence characterised by a consummate interfusion of circumlocution...and other familiar manifestations of abstruse expatiation commonly utilised for promulgations implementing procrustean determinations by governmental bodies.’.
1969		Y. Carter Mr Campion’s Farthing 105: This is long-winded tripe dressed up in police court bafflegab.
1977		It June 2/3: Anarchism has got nothing to do with such bafflegab mystagoguery as ‘the common source of all energy’.
1995		Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan 11 Apr. 1513/1: Mr. Premier, I want to know why the bureaucratic bafflegab?
2004		Canadian Broadcasting Co. 26 Mar. 🌐 Long-time Edmonton city councillor Ron Hayter could only shake his head in amazement. ‘It’s another example of the Klein government’s bafflegab,’ Hayter said.