What is the equivalent in English of the French "pipotron", which refers to meaningless filler content that looks like it was written by a bot?
I cannot find a good translation in English of the French word "pipotron". Could you help me?
In French, it refers originally to an automated process to randomly generate sentences. Now it is a pejorative word describing a text mostly void of content (filler text) that looks like it was generated by a bot. This kind of text can mostly be found in marketing material, with lots of fashionable words (like "cloud computing", "innovation" or "disruptive"). I'm looking for this second meaning of the word "pipotron".
From "pipeau" (noun) and "pipoter" (verb): to say a lot of random, meaningless, misleading or hard to follow statements, in order to confuse or deceive the listeners. Commonly used by salesmen and politicians. It's pejorative. And from "-tron", same meaning as in English, to indicate that is an automated process.
The closest I can find is "bullshit (material)", but it is vulgar while "pipotron" is not.
A key word for meaningless text is gibberish, which literally refers to utterances that don't make sense. Merriam-Webster gives these meanings:
: unintelligible or meaningless language:
a : a technical or esoteric (see esoteric sense 1) language // The doctors spoke to one another in their medical gibberish that I was unable to follow.
b : pretentious or needlessly obscure language // The substance of the philosopher's work is buried in polysyllabic gibberish.
The second meaning is more pertinent here. There is often something needlessly convoluted about gibberish, as if it has been written without any attempt to communicate meaningfully with an audience. Calling speech gibberish is often an insult or pejorative, whether written by humans or computers:
The computer industry is the only industry that is more fashion-driven than women's fashion. Maybe I'm an idiot, but I have no idea what anyone is talking about. What is [cloud computing]? It's complete gibberish. It's insane. When is this idiocy going to stop? (Larry Ellison, "Oracle's Ellison nails cloud computing," CNET, 26 Sept. 2008, via Wikiquote)
Publishers withdraw more than 120 gibberish papers. Conference proceedings removed from subscription databases after scientist reveals that they were computer-generated. (Nature, 24 February 2014).
One possibility is word salad. While it originally referred specifically to confused language indicative of mental illness, it’s now pretty widely used to any speech or writing that is incoherent to the point of meaninglessness. This blog post at Merriam-Webster has a discussion and some examples.
If you are looking to describe drivel in general, such as a politician or salesperson would use, then technobabble does not fit, as it is specifically restricted to drivel that uses tech buzzwords. Word salad is more general and refers to drivel in any context, including tech.
Of course drivel itself might meet your needs too.
Given your description of the second meaning of pipotron, it would seem to be a nearly exact match for technobabble.
I think the English word that fits here might be:
Bafflegab: Incomprehensible or pretentious language, especially bureaucratic jargon.
Or, as originally defined: "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."