An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/kauderwelsch

by Friedrich Kluge

kauderwelsch, adjective, ‘jargon,’ first occurs in early Modern High German allied to an unexplained verb kaudern, ‘to talk unintelligibly,’ hence ‘strange, unintelligible foreign tongue.’ It seems to have been a Swiss word originally and allied to Suabian and Swiss kauder, chûder, ‘tow’; or should it be churwelsch?