White Noise (slang)
The term white noise, the 'sh' noise produced by a signal containing all audible frequencies of vibration, is sometimes used as slang (or a neologism) to describe a meaningless commotion or chatter that masks or obliterates underlying information.
The information itself may have characteristics that achieve this effect without the need to introducing a masking layer. A common example of this usage is a politician including more information than needed to mask a point he doesn't want noticed.
In music the term is used for music that is discordant with no melody; disagreeable, harsh or dissonant.
Read more about White Noise (slang): "White Noise" in The Media
Famous quotes containing the words white and/or noise:
“O, white pear,
your flower-tufts
thick on the branch
bring summer and ripe fruits
in their purple hearts.”
—Hilda Doolittle (1886–1961)
“You may say a cat uses good grammar. Well, a cat does—but you let a cat get excited once; you let a cat get to pulling fur with another cat on a shed, nights, and you’ll hear grammar that will give you the lockjaw. Ignorant people think it’s the noise which fighting cats make that is so aggravating, but it ain’t so; it’s the sickening grammar they use.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)