"A peculiar anthologic maze, an amusing literary chaos, a farrago of quotations, a mere olla podrida of quaintness, a pot pourri of pleasant delites, a florilegium of elegant extracts, a tangled fardel of old-world flowers of thought, a faggot of odd fancies, quips, facetiae, loosely tied" (Holbrook Jackson, Anatomy of Bibliomania) by a "laudator temporis acti," a "praiser of time past" (Horace, Ars Poetica 173).
slang (originally U.S.). Trivial, foolish, or empty words; nonsense, blather.Thanks to Dave Lull for the link to Green’s Dictionary of Slang. Guff: 2. Insolence — that's how I always understood the word, as a synonym for backtalk, and Dave agrees from his experience.