Psittacism is speech or writing that appears mechanical or repetitive in the manner of a parrot

Parrot

Parrots, also known as psittacines , are birds of the roughly 372 species in 86 genera that make up the order Psittaciformes, found in most tropical and subtropical regions. The order is subdivided into three families: the Psittacidae , the Cacatuidae and the Strigopidae...

. More generally it is a pejorative

Pejorative

Pejoratives , including name slurs, are words or grammatical forms that connote negativity and express contempt or distaste. A term can be regarded as pejorative in some social groups but not in others, e.g., hacker is a term used for computer criminals as well as quick and clever computer experts...

 description of the use of words which appear to have been used without regard to their meaning.

The word is derived from the Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

 term for parrots psittaci in an analogy with the ability of some parrots to speak human words but without any knowledge of their meaning.
Parrots, in turn, may be used as symbols of psittacism. In Flaubert's story Un cœur simple

Three Tales (Flaubert)

Three Tales is a work by Gustave Flaubert that was originally published in French in 1877. It consists of the short stories "A Simple Heart", "Saint Julian" and "Hérodias"...

the parrot may have been used in this manner. Ben Stoltzfus wrote in The French Review:

Thus, Loulou is a parrot, and at the same time a symbol of psittacism, that
malady of so many of Flaubert's characters who either parrot banalities
without thought or meaning, or are the victims of this psittacism.