GARBLE, originally a mediaeval commercial term in the Mediterranean ports, meaning to sort out, or to sift merchandise, such as spices, etc., in order to separate what was good from the refuse; hence to select the best of anything. Similarly a "garbler" was an official appointed to sort out, or test the work of those who had sorted, the spices or drugs offered for sale in the London markets. In this sense the word is obsolete, but by inversion, or rather perversion, "garble" now means to sort out or select, chiefly from books or other literary works, or from public speeches, some portion which twists, mutilates or renders inef fective the meaning of the author or speaker.