Today, someone told me that the word "gossip" is rooted in misogyny and is specifically meant to demean conversation between women, something similar to the etymology and history of "hysteria." I hadn't heard that and wondered if it might be a false etymology/history.
It may be possible for each to think too much of his own potential glory hereafter; it is hardly possible for him to think too often or too deeply about that of his neighbor. The load, or weight, or burden of my neighbor’s glory should be laid daily on my back, a load so heavy that only humility can carry it, and the backs of the proud will be broken.
It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations.
It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics.
There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilization—these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.
This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously—no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption. And our charity must be real and costly love, with deep feeling for the sins in spite of which we love the sinner—no mere tolerance or indulgence which parodies love as flippancy parodies merriment.
The word comes from Middle English godsybbe, godsib (“a close friend or relation, a confidant; a godparent”), from Old English godsibb (“godparent, sponsor”), equivalent to god + sib. There are two, obsolete definitions that reflect this etymology:
- Noun: A sponsor; a godfather or godmother; the godparent of one's child or godchild, or the parent of one's godchild.
- Verb: To stand godfather to; to provide godparents for.
I didn't expect that to be the origin of the word. Sounds like a perfectly lovely word, right? One which anyone would be honored to be called, right? So how did it come to mean what it does, the act of idle chatter, usually about a person who isn't present or the person who engages in such actions?
According to If Walls Could Talk: An Intimate History of the Home by Lucy Worsley, the current meaning of the word came about because, when a mother was about to give birth, friends, neighbors and, especially, relations (or "god-sibs") would gather. It was a social event. And it was exclusively females.
These female "god-sibs" would talk, as happens with any gathering of friends, neighbors and family. And, since it was females, obviously the talk was idle chatter. So the "idle chatter" of the "god-sibs" eventually came to be known as gossip.
I wondered what word other languages used for gossip and what they could reveal. Most were less than illuminating because I couldn't find etymologies. Latin, however, was a surprising goldmine because it had a BUNCH of words for gossip and these words didn't need a lot of explanation.
For "gossip" meaning the thing itself, there was confabulationes, rumor and fama among others. All of those make sense because they either refer to reputation or to a false story.
For "a gossip" meaning a person who is engaging in it, there was lingualaca, sermo, colloquor and loquitor. They all have the idea of a person who constantly talks about nothing. I think lingualaca is the most fun as it could be translated as "tongue-waggler."
There's probably many words in Spanish, but my favorite by far is chisme. It can mean either gossip or a worthless thing or (I'm not making this up) "thingy." It comes from the Latin word cīmex or "bedbug." If that ain't the best word to use for gossip, I don't know what is.
By the way, I have this idea for a Latin American version of "The View" called "La Chismesa." It combines chisme and mesa and, thus, means "The Gossip-Table." I'd 100% watch that.
Anyway, after going down that rabbit-hole, I began to wonder what the word for "gossip" was before "gossip." In Middle English, there was "jangling" and "idle talk," both of which are excellent and I prefer to "gossip." But what about before then, in Old English/Anglo-Saxon? This was surprisingly difficult to find as I couldn't locate a Modern English to Old English translator. After much searching, I found three words that were probably used for "gossip":
- lēasspell = lie, fiction, fable
- lēasspellung = empty talk
- lēasungspell = idle tale
You'll note two elements in all three of these, lēas and spell. Lēas as an adjective means without, free from, devoid of or bereft. Or it can mean false, faithless: untruthful, deceitful, vain or worthless. I can see that one of these words uses the "false" meaning and the other two use the "empty" meaning. Even more interesting is spell. Our word "spell" as in a "magic spell" is directly derived from this. But the more appropriate meaning is related to how it's used in "Gospel" which, originally, was "God-spell." It literally means "good news/message." As an aside, the verb "spell" as in "to spell a word" has a different origin.
As I was researching this, I found this intriguing quote which is referenced on a bunch of websites and is supposedly from Edmund Spencer's epic poem The Faerie Queen (1590). Here's the quote:
Spell is a kind of verse or charm, that in elder times they used often to say over everything that they would have preserved: as the night-spell for thieves, and the wood-spell. And here-hence, I thinke, is named the Gospel, or Word.
The thing is, it's not in the poem, or I can't find it. Nor can I find any actual attribution for it. I can attest from my own knowledge that the assertion about "Gospel" is true and that such things as "night-spells" exist in English literature. This is an excerpt from the "Miller's Tale" from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.
I haven't thought about this in a while, but who the hell is St. Peter's sister?
I think I've gotten off topic. Bottom line: not only does the word "gossip" appear to be misogynistic, that misogyny led to the pollution of a really great word. A good word. A literally Godly word. It SHOULD mean your "God-family" but, instead, it means idle or harmful chatter, especially among women.
Two last things. First, I found out about the s-mobile which, if you're interested in Proto Indo-European, might be worth looking into.
Second, there's a BUNCH of really cool words using the Old English root lēas, so I thought I'd leave you with those. You'll note that the definitions carry both the "false" and "empty" meanings of lēas. This becomes super-interesting to me with words like lēasnes which can mean either "lying" or "levity" and lēasung which can mean "lying, false witness, deceit, hypocrisy, artifice, empty talk or frivolity." It makes me wonder if the Anglo-Saxons equated speaking lightly about something vs. outright lying about it. I'm reminded of a quote from C.S. Lewis from "The Weight of Glory". I'm including the whole thing because it's so good:
It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations.
It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics.
There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilization—these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.
This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously—no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption. And our charity must be real and costly love, with deep feeling for the sins in spite of which we love the sinner—no mere tolerance or indulgence which parodies love as flippancy parodies merriment.
Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses.
Anyway, on to the word-hoard.
- lēasbrēd: lying, false, deceitful, cheating, trickery.
- lēasbrēda: trickster
- lēasbrēdende: wily, deceitful
- lēasbrēdnes: deception, falsehood.
- lēascræft: false art (What a great word for "politics"!!!)
- lēasere: liar, hypocrite. buffoon, mime, jester, fool
- lēasettan: to pretend
- lēas-ferhð: false
- lēasferðnes: levity, folly
- lēasgewitnes: false witness
- lēasgielp: vainglory
- lēasian: lie
- lēaslic: false, deceitful, sham, empty
- lēaslīccettan: dissemble
- lēaslīcettung: dissimulation.
- lēasmōdnes: instability
- lēasnes: lying: levity
- lēasōleccan: to blandish, flatter
- lēasōlecung: empty blandishment
- lēassagol: lying, false
- lēasscēawere: spy
- lēassponung: allurement
- lēastyhtan: to cajole
- lēastyhtung: cajolery
- lēasuht or lēaswiht: enticer, seducer
- lēasung: lying, false witness, deceit, hypocrisy, artifice, empty talk, frivolity.
- lēasbian: a lying sapphist
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