Grimoire

Chambers's Encyclopaedia, Volume 5: Friday to Humanitarians, p. 426

Grimoire (whence the English grammar, 'magic'), the French term for the book of formulas which sorcerers used for invoking demons; hence also gibberish. The older forms of the word (gramaire, gramare) approximate to the Low Latin gramma, 'a letter'; the origin of the word being obvious.

Source scan(s): p. 0441