Advertise here from only 40 baht per week
Bobby’s British Breakfast Foods
UK Sausages, Ham, Bacon, Pies, Teas etc.
Call 087 155 7737 or 089 985 7473
SERVED UP BY...
A section for all you budding etymologists where each week the origin of a word or phrase is investigated.
This week it is..... Gossip
An unsubstantiated rumour or someone who spreads
the same
This week English Corner received an email which
contained a number of words, phrases and sayings
along with their purported origins, and among them
was ‘Gossip’, and the accompanying explanation of the
origin went like this...
“Early politicians required feedback from the public
to determine what was considered important to the
people. Since there were no telephones, TVs or radios,
the politicians sent their assistants to local taverns,
pubs, and bars, instructing them to ‘go sip some ale’ and
listen to people’s conversations and political concerns.
When assistants were dispatched, they were told, ‘You
go sip here’ and ‘You go sip there.’ The two words ‘go
sip’ were eventually combined when referring to the
local opinion and thus we have the term ‘gossip.’”
This story has been circulating on the internet for
the past few months, along with the others in a list of
“amazing facts.”
So, is it true? Not even close. The real question is
whether the person who cooked up that little fable
actually believed it. The suspicion is that many such
silly stories are concocted and set afloat on the internet
just to see how far they’ll spread, a sort of “flapdoodle
in a bottle.” But it’s possible that the author thought it
“might” be true. Smash “gossip” into little pieces and
you do get “go sip,” and from there the story pretty much
writes itself. But “reverse engineering” words in such a
literal fashion rarely works.
The appeal of such stories is said to be that they “make
sense,” but the actual origin of “gossip” makes just as
much sense even if it takes a bit longer to explain. In
Old English, a “godsibb” was a godmother or godfather,
a person’s sponsor at baptism, from “god” plus “sib,”
meaning “relative” (related to our modern “sibling”).
Eventually “godsib” acquired the broader meaning
of “close friend” of either sex, although most often a
woman. Since close friends share intimate secrets and
news, “gossip” (as it was spelled by the 15th century)
came to mean “one who indulges in idle chatter or
rumours,” and the modern sense of labeling someone
a “gossip” was born. The use of “gossip” to mean
the rumours themselves is a more recent and logical
progression, appearing in the 19th century.
Is there an English phrase or saying that you would
like to know more about?
Email it to us on [email protected]
Enjoy a Day Tour at the Wildlife Rescue Center
Only
With our daily tours we explore the WFFT Rescue Center’s animals; we have bears,
45 m
from inutes d
elephants, gibbons and many others. You will learn about the animal’s
Only
rive
Hu
3
life stories, and walk with our elephants to the nearby forest. You can shower Tran 0 minutes a Hin,
spor
from
t can
the elephant after the walk, and help with the feed out to the bears and monkeys.
be a Cha Am.
rrang
Responsible tourism as we keep animal welfare as top priority.
ed.
Visit us for an unforgettable experience!
Bookings: 0822458598 (English) / 032458135 (Thai/English),
email: [email protected]
Check us out on www.wfft.org
Facebook-Wildlife Friends Thailand / Tripadvisor
Join the AWOL forum
7