Double talk
Double talk turns up in 2 fields: shop slang, telecom & it. Here is what it means to the people in each one.
Double talk in shop slang
Deliberately confusing or evasive language used to avoid giving a straight answer.
Deliberately confusing, evasive, or overly technical language used to obscure facts. Workers use this term to describe management updates, vendor excuses, or project reports that sound professional but contain no actual information. It is a common tactic to avoid committing to a deadline, masking a budget overrun, or admitting a mistake.
"The project manager gave us ten minutes of double talk, but I still have no idea if the parts shipped."
Double talk in telecom & it
A condition in a voice circuit where both parties speak simultaneously, often confusing echo cancellers.
Double talk occurs during full-duplex communication when the near-end and far-end speakers talk over each other. In digital telephony, this simultaneous audio creates a major challenge for echo cancellation algorithms, which typically rely on one person speaking at a time to model and subtract the delayed signal. If the system fails to handle double talk, it often results in heavy clipping, dropped syllables, or sudden bursts of feedback.
"The new VoIP gateway is struggling with double talk, causing half the conversation to clip out when they argue."