Technobabble is the use of words vaguely related to
science fact in some way, in hopes of making
speculative fiction at least sound plausible, further assisting the
audience in
suspension of disbelief. It's also intended not to allow the show or book or whatever to become dated or flawed before it has a chance to make any money. Technobabble has been used extensively in speculative fiction since at least the days of
Jules Verne. However, the term, and the terminology behind it, didn't actually hit the mainstream populace until the introduction of
Star Trek on modern
pop culture.
We have Michael Okuda and his team of people behind-the-scenes at Paramount to thank for a lot of these geeky words. Some of my personal favorite technobabble words from Star Trek include:
Sometimes they get really stuck and can't think of anything, so when they do that, they make up an inventor, and just use his name, like
the Manheim Device in
We'll Always Have Paris (TNG) or
the Tantalus Field in
Mirror, Mirror (TOS). And then there's times when they just punt. When all other avenues are exhausted, they would just make up a word:
Tribble, for example.