{"id":5689,"date":"2026-07-16T11:12:28","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T11:12:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bestusamoverss.com\/?p=5689"},"modified":"2026-07-16T11:12:28","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T11:12:28","slug":"gossip-had-godly-origins-heres-how-it-gained-its-sinful-reputation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bestusamoverss.com\/?p=5689","title":{"rendered":"‘Gossip’ had godly origins. Here’s how it gained its sinful reputation"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In the leadup to Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s New York City wedding, the rumor mill went into overdrive.<\/p>

Read more TrumpRx promised a supermarket for cheaper drugs but delivered a boutique<\/a><\/p>

In the absence of any concrete confirmation from the couple’s team, rumors and gossip about the details \u2013 what the couple wore or whether her cats walked her down the aisle \u2013 became endless fodder for TikTok and the nightly news.<\/p>

The real details are only really known by the couple and their guests. The rest of us are left only with gossip.<\/p>

So, as part of NPR’s “Word of the Week” series and as a gift to the newlyweds, we’re looking into the origins of the word “gossip.”<\/p>\n

Where does it come from?<\/h3>

Gossip’s roots go back to Old English, according to Jess Zafarris, author of several books on etymology includingIt stems from the old word, meaning “sponsor or godparent.”<\/p>

It then became a part of Middle English and started to describe a close friend or neighbor, Zafarris said. That became the “stepping stone” for today’s notion of gossip.<\/p>

“It was especially used as a word for women friends who got together often for social occasions,” she said. “According to gendered stereotypes, what do women friends do when they get together socially? They chat idly about the people and the happenings in their lives.”<\/p>

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\nThe Empire State Building is seen in the distance as people take photos of a giant screen showing the message \"JUST&T MARRIED!\" (T&T for Taylor and Travis) outside Madison Square Garden, where wedding celebrations of pop singer Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs were held, in New York City on Friday.<\/picture>
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Pop Culture <\/h3>\n

After weeks of speculation, Taylor Swift, Travis Kelce wed in New York <\/h3>\n<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\n

There are even some records from around the 1600s that indicated the word was used to refer to a woman’s female friends who were invited to be present at a birth, Zafarris said.<\/p>

Around the 16th century, “gossip” started to carry a negative, gendered connotation, as it started to be used to refer to women who liked to spread rumors, Zafarris said.<\/p>

Read more Bike lanes and speed cameras disappear from the DOT\u2019s list of proven safety measures<\/a><\/p>

Gossip as a feminist act?<\/h3>

Silvia Federici, a longtime feminist writer, thinker and professor, said that gossip’s derogatory transformation reflected societal shifts. While some women once held some power, an increasingly misogynist society at the end of the Middle Ages began to dismiss them.<\/p>\n\n

Federici says in the early Middle Ages, women held some power and were valued in the community. In medieval society in Europe, for example, a woman could go to court and directly accuse a man of a crime. Two centuries later, she wouldn’t be able to do that, Federici explained.\u00a0<\/p>

In researching her book , Federici says she found proclamations published in Europe encouraging husbands to keep their wives at home and to forbid them from going outside and talking.<\/p>

Federici says the negative transformation of “gossip” was a means to denigrate women, to lessen their position in society and ultimately to control them.<\/p>

By around the 17th century, she says the original meaning of the word was lost completely.<\/p>

Women’s gossip is then identified “with idleness \u2026 with waste \u2026 with social rebelliousness,” she said. Federici believes society cannot view the devaluation of gossip as separate from the devaluation of women’s life, actions and knowledge.<\/p>

author Tova Leigh believes Federici’s analysis of gossip holds a lot of truth.<\/p>

With a caveat: “Of course, malicious gossip exists. I’m certainly not defending cruelty. But I think we’ve ended up confusing all female conversation with its worst examples, and that’s a shame.”<\/p>

Leigh believes good gossip should be embraced and reclaimed.<\/p>

“I’d love women to feel less ashamed of gathering together and talking,” she said in an email. “When women feel safe enough to tell the truth about their lives, incredible things happen. They stop pretending. They stop competing. They realise they’re not alone. That’s the type of ‘gossip’ I’d love us to reclaim.”<\/p>

Read more DHS pledged body cams for all immigration agents. Months later, that hasn\u2019t happened<\/a><\/p>

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\"How<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n
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It’s Been a Minute <\/h3>\n

How to make friends & get good gossip<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We’ve all engaged in a little ‘gossip.’ But did you know its origins were tied to family and friendship?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5677,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\n'Gossip' had godly origins. Here's how it gained its sinful reputation - Best USA Movers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bestusamoverss.com\/?p=5689\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"'Gossip' had godly origins. 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