The Gift of the Gab

Yes – it’s true! I love to talk.

When asked to fill in my hobbies on any sort of form I always put:
talking; writing

Many is the time I have punctuated an input to teachers with the words;
“I was born talking and now nobody can ever shut me up. In fact I have to be shut in a cupboard at night and if you open the door a chink in the early hours, you will still find me standing there gabbing away…’

The dictionary gives the following definition for that well known idiom; the ability to talk fluently, glibly and persuasively, with enriched language.

The idiom “gift of the gab” refers to the ability to speak easily, confidently, and persuasively. It originated from the Middle English words “gob” (mouth) and “gabbe” (idle talk). The phrase “gift of the gab” itself emerged in the 1680s, signifying a talent for speaking.

The word “gab” itself has a history tracing back to the 13th century, with early meanings including “chatter,” “idle talk,” and even “falsehood”.

My mother used to say I must have kissed the Blarney Stone when I was born. Blarney Castle in County Cork was built by the great chieftain Cormac Dermot MacCarthy, son of Dermot McCarthy, in 1446. Dermot was renowned for his eloquence and those who kiss the Blarney Stone, which is set into the walls of the castle, are said to be granted the gift of the gab.

I have never been to County Cork and I have never – to my knowledge – kissed a stone (although I have tripped over a fair few) but I do love to talk and in Yorkshire we call that gabbing. And I do admit to being able to talk very easily, usually fluently and often persuasively, however the reasons for this are not stone kissing but rather – survival!

If you had grown up with 3 siblings who were all older than you, highly intelligent and highly articulate – in the days before TV when talking was the main leisure activity and at a level of enforced deprivation that meant everything had to be fought for and about and the entertainment of every evening was discussion and debate – then you would have had to learn rapidly to ‘hold your own’, ‘stand your corner’ and ‘fight your ground’ – plus any other idioms for survival you can come up with.

Survival in our family depended on being able to persuade, cajole, argue, explain, entertain, amuse, justify and coerce – all in language that was enriched and elaborated, expressive and nuanced, with passion, coherence, conviction and emotion, and with facial expression, gesture and body language to enhance and enrich the performance. In fact – YES you’re right – I had to learn to be an orator.

From the age of 6, ensuring my place and safety in our family of orators required oratory and I fought to retain that place. Those features I have listed as essential for my survival are the features of rhetoric – a passion of the ancient Greeks who also sought oratory and debate as their valued forms of entertainment.

Oracy is not oratory, but oratory is the ultimate form of oracy. It amused me when Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour candidate for Prime Minister, revealed himself to be a passionate advocate for oracy – even though he himself proved to be (in my opinion) the most boring of public speakers. Voice 21 initiated the establishment of the Oracy Education Commission in March 2024, and the report was published in November of the same year.

Amazingly, Keir Starmer appears to have had oracy coaching since the start of 2025 and is now proving to be an influential voice in the Trump Tariff Turmoil.

Meanwhile I am much enjoying myself speaking at events on the wonderful subject of oracy. There is so much to say, so much history, definition, explanation and modelling; and then the demonstration of oratory itself, with so much passion, perfection, coherence, conviction and charisma, so much emotion, exposition, empathy and energy.

The orator knows – without doubt – whether he or she has hit the mark and swept the audience along with the power of performance, the cheers and clapping, the laughter and gasps of horror will confirm that ‘the verbalisation of experience’ has conveyed the experience and enabled ‘the experience of verbalisation’ to quote the creator of the term ‘oracy’, Andrew Wilkinson.