▪ I. gossip, n.
(ˈgɒsɪp)
Forms: 1 godsib(b, 4 godsyb(be, -zyb(be, 4–5 gossib(be, 4–7 godsib(be, 5–6 gos(s)y(p)p(e, 5–7 godsip, gossipp(e, gos(s)op(e, 5–8 gossep(pe, 6–7 goship, (5 godsep, -sypp, gossyb(e, 6 ghosseppe, gossup, goshyp(p, godcept, 7 godsepte, ghossip), 6– gossip.
[OE. godsibb masc. (f. god god + sib(b adj., akin, related: see sib a.) = ON. guð-sefe masc., guð-sifja fem., OSw. guzsowir masc., guþziff, gudzsöff fem. In ME. a single example is found of a fem. godzybbe corresp. to masc. godzyb (see quot. 1340 in 1).]
1. One who has contracted spiritual affinity with another by acting as a sponsor at a baptism. a. In relation to the person baptized: A godfather or godmother; a sponsor. Now only arch. and dial.
| 1014 Wulfstan Serm. ad Anglos (Napier) 160 Godsibbas and godbearn to fela man forspilde wide ᵹynd þas þeode. 1340 Ayenb. 48 Þe zeuende is..of godsone to þe children of his godzyb oþer of his godzybbe. 1590 Greenwood Collect. Sclaund. Art. G, The rashe, vndiscreete, and vnpossible vowe of the saide gossipps. 1649 Evelyn Diary (1827) II. 16 The parents being so poore that they had provided no gossips. a 1654 Selden Table T. (Arb.) 90 Should a great Lady, that was invited to be a Gossip, in her place send her kitchen-maid. 1711 Hearne Collect. (O.H.S.) III. 194 Fully designed to come and stand gossip in person to Dr. Hudson's child. 1770 Foote Lame Lover i. 12 Do you know that you are new christen'd, and have had me for a gossip? 1819 S. Rogers Hum. Life 34 Now, glad at heart the gossips breathe their prayer. 1856 C. M. Yonge Daisy Chain i. ix. (1879) 79 I'll find gossips, and let 'em be christened on Sunday. 1876 Freeman Norm. Conq. V. xxv. 560 The Englishman whose child was held at the font by a Norman gossip..cast aside his own name. 1886 S.W. Linc. Gloss. s.v., I suppose the same gossips will do for both. |
| fig. 1581 J. Bell Haddon's Answ. Osor. 407 b, And this place y⊇ Catholicke gosseppes have Christened by the name of Purgatory. 1607 Middleton Michaelm. Term iii. iv, I would never undertake to be gossip to that bond which I would not see well brought up. 1673 [R. Leigh] Transp. Reh. 8 Who would be Gossip to all the nameless Off-springs of the Press. |
† b. transf. With reference to the christening of a bell.
Obs.| 1563 Foxe A. & M. 380 The bel hauing a new garment put vppon it..they goo vnto sumptuous bankets, where⁓vnto also the Gossips are bidden. 1778 Pennant Tour in Wales (1883) I. 47 A bell..was also christened..The gossips.. were doubtlessly rich persons. |
† c. In relation to the parents: (One's) child's godfather or godmother.
Obs.| c 1325 Lai le Freine 42 He schal mi gossibbe be. 1475 Sir J. Paston in P. Lett. No. 766 III. 145 He was fayn to sue to the said Duc..by the meanes of his godsip the Bisshop of Wynchestre. [He was sponsor to the Duke's daughter.] 1494 Fabyan Chron. vii. 561 Which Wyllyam..was gossyp vnto the quene. c 1610 Sir J. Melvil Mem. (1683) 70, I requested her majesty to be a gossip to the Queen. 1612 Davies Why Ireland, etc. (1747) 113 The English were forbidden to marry, to foster, to make gossippes with the Irish. 1625 B. Jonson Staple of N. Induct., And those Mothers had Gossips (if their Children were christned) as we are. 1698 M. Martin Voy. Kilda (1749) 76 The Officer..condescended to be the Impostor's Gossip, i.e. Sponsor at the Baptism of one of his Children. 1893 P. W. Joyce Short Hist. Irel. 88 When a man stood sponsor for a child..he became the child's godfather, and gossip to the parents. |
† d. In relation to one who acts as godfather or godmother on the same occasion: A fellow-sponsor.
| c 1386 Chaucer Pars. T. ¶835 A womman may in no lasse synne assemblen with hire godsib, than with hire owene flesshly brother. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 204/2 Gossyp, mann, compater. Gossyp, woman, commater. 1563 Becon Acts Chr. & Antichr. Wks. III. 416 Christen Gossippes..those men and women that haue bene Godfathers and Godmothers together of one childe at Baptisme. 1622 Fletcher Sp. Curate ii. i, Lean. I have heard him say you were gossips too. Lop. You did not heare him say to whom. 1666 Pepys Diary 2 Dec., I took my pretty gossip to White Hall with us. |
† e. gen. Obs.| c 1315 Shoreham 69 In that cas thou myȝt weddy To thyne wyfes gossibbe. c 1386 Chaucer Pars. T. ¶834 Parentele is in two maneres, outher goostly or fleshly; goostly, as for to delen with hise godsibbes. |
2. a. A familiar acquaintance, friend, chum. Formerly applied to both sexes, now only (somewhat
arch.) to women. (A sense apparently derived more immediately from 1 c.)
The expression in
quot. 1641 is
app. the name of some rustic game or dance.
| 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. v. 152 ‘Ic haue good ale, gossib’, quod heo. ‘Gloten, woltou asaye’? 1393 Ibid. C. vii. 47 What ich gaf for godes loue, to god-sybbes ich tolde. a 1450 Knt. de la Tour (1868) 79 There was a false bauude that was her godsib. a 1529 Skelton E. Rummyng 356 Lo, gossyp, I wys, Thus and thus it is. c 1560 Ingelend Disobedient Child F ij b, She is to her Gossypes gone to make mery. 1641 Brome Joviall Crew ii. (1652) D 2 b, He makes us even sick of his sadness, that were wont to see my Ghossips cock to day; mould Cocklebread; daunce clutterdepouch [etc.]. 1766 H. Brooke Fool of Quality (1809) II. 11 Barnaby Boniface, his next neighbour and gossip. 1820 Keats Eve St. Agnes xii, Ah, Gossip dear, We're safe enough; here in this arm-chair sit. 1857 C. Brontë Professor I. xi. 180 The old duenna—my mother's gossip. 1873 Ouida Pascarel I. 65 His mother too, was a gossip of her own. |
b. esp. Applied to a woman's female friends invited to be present at a birth.
| 1590 Shakes. Mids. N. ii. i. 47 Sometime lurke I in a Gossips bole, In very likenesse of a roasted crab. 1620 Swetnam Arraign'd (1880) 44 Bidding of Gossips, calling to Vpsittings. a 1661 Fuller Worthies (1840) I. xx. 75 They are as good evidence to prove where they were born, as if we had the deposition of the midwife, and all the gossips present at their mothers labours. 1721–1800 Bailey, A gossiping, a merry Meeting of Gossips, at a Woman's Lying in. 1764 Low Life 29 Poor labouring Men..are obliged to..go a Nigiting, i.e. fetching Midwives, Nurses and Gossips. 1805 Med. Jrnl. XIV. 258 The officiousness of nurses and gossips. 1858 M. Porteous Souter Johnny 31 Whan your nieve the gossip streikit. |
| transf. 1664 Butler Hud. ii. i. 90 To do the office of a Neighbour, And be a Gossip at his Labour. |
3. A person, mostly a woman, of light and trifling character,
esp. one who delights in idle talk; a newsmonger, a tattler.
| 1566 [see 6, gossip-like]. 1579 Lyly Euphues (Arb.) 52, I will..bring..a visard on my face, for a shamelesse gossippe. 1600 Dekker Fortunatus Wks. 1873 I. 97, I wonder what blind gossip this minx is that is so prodigall. 1614 T. Adams Devil's Banq. 320 There arise in the end..as many Gospels as Gossips. 1687 Dryden Hind & P. iii. 903 The common chat of gossips when they meet. 1709 Hearne Collect. (O.H.S.) II. 212 John Stevens..a negligent, busy, prating Gossip. 1716 Addison Freeholder No. 26. 144 A Gossip in Politics is a Slattern in her Family. 1833 H. Martineau Loom & Lugger i. i. 6 If he did not mean the girls to grow up the greatest gossips in the neighbourhood. 1854 Emerson Soc. Aims Wks. (Bohn) III. 176 Why need you, who are not a gossip, talk as a gossip? 1884 J. H. Ewing Mary's Meadow 13 The Weeding Woman is a great gossip. |
4. The conversation of such a person; idle talk; trifling or groundless rumour; tittle-tattle. Also, in a more favourable sense: Easy, unrestrained talk or writing,
esp. about persons or social incidents.
| 1811 Sporting Mag. XXXVII. 11, I was up to his gossip, so I took him. 1820 W. Irving Sketch Bk. II. 358 A kind of travelling gazette, carrying the whole budget of local gossip from house to house. 1833 H. Martineau Loom & Lugger i. i. 6 All this gossip about their neighbours. 1849 Ld. Houghton in T. W. Reid Life (1891) I. x. 439 A sort of focus of political gossip. 1870 E. Peacock Ralf Skirl. I. 27 We are fond of topographical gossip. 1889 Barrie Window in Thrums 177 My presence killed the gossip on her tongue. |
5. Some kind of game. (
Cf. Scandal.)
| 1880 New Virginians II. 202 We had a few games, ‘Gossip’, very amusing—I don't know whether English or American. |
6. attrib. and
Comb., as (appositive in senses 2 and 3)
gossip-nurse,
gossip-seer, (sense 4)
gossip-exchange,
gossip-gleaner,
gossip-monger,
gossip-mongering,
gossip-shop,
gossip-writing;
gossip-greedy adj.; (sense 3)
gossip-like adj. and
adv.,
gossip-wise adv.;
gossip column, the column or columns of a newspaper or magazine in which gossip about persons or social events is printed; so
gossip-columnist,
gossip-writer.
† gossip-cup, also
gossip's cup = caudle n.1;
gossip-money, gratuities to the sponsors at a christening;
† gossip-pint-pot, a hard drinker.
| 1859 J. Blackwood Let. 18 Apr. in Geo. Eliot's Lett. (1954) III. 52 We had better set a paragraph afloat... Can you do it in the Athenæum or any of the other weekly literary *gossip columns? 1897 G. Meredith Let. 20 Dec. (1970) III. 1285, I comply, but love your Gossip Column least. 1930 J. B. Priestley Angel Pavement ii. 57 Mr. Smeeth..next tried the gossip columns. 1933 H. Nicolson Diary 29 Jan. (1966) 135 A gossip-column writer in a Chicago newspaper. 1938 L. MacNeice Earth Compels 59 It's no go the gossip column. 1962 Times 7 June 17/3 Rich gossip-column meat. |
| 1945 Koestler Twilight Bar 8 Glowworm, poet and *gossip-columnist. 1959 Times Lit. Suppl. 4 Sept. 505/2 His friends are song-writers, gossip-columnists, [etc.]. |
| 1633 Hart Diet of Diseased Introd. 20 A cup of good ale, with some nutmegg, suger, and a tost, a good *gossip cup I confesse. |
| 1594 Plat Jewell-ho. ii. 14 If you will make a right *Gossips Cuppe that shall farre exceede all the Ale. |
| 1963 Times 25 May 9/7 Everyone will know through the sewing-shop *gossip-exchange. |
| 1853 Hickie tr. Aristoph. (1872) II. 574 Do you say this of me, you *gossip-gleaner? |
| 1904 Daily Chron. 12 Dec. 4/4 Another of those scandal books of which the credulous, *gossip-greedy public have..been treated to a singular crop. |
| 1566 Drant Horace's Sat. ii. vi. H viij, Full *gosseplike, the father sage beginnes his fable then. 1599 Shakes. Much Ado v. i. 188, I will leaue you now to your gossep-like humor. 17.. ? E. Ward Welsh monster 35 Let him..Tattle but Gossip like, to please 'em. |
| 1845 Syd. Smith Irish Rom. Cath. Ch. Wks. 1859 II. 339/1 The same scenes of altercation take place when *gossip-money is refused at baptisms. |
| 1836 T. Hook G. Gurney xvi. (1850) III. 349 Several of those meddling *gossip-mongers, who invariably infest small country-town society. 1868 E. Edwards Raleigh I. viii. 119 A few weeks later, Sir Francis Allen informs that great gossip-monger, Anthony Bacon [etc.]. |
| 1893 Athenæum 7 Oct. 487/2 What merit it possesses consists in..the mischievous *gossip-mongering of a certain Lady Dahlia Wormwood. |
| 1845 Hood Sea Spell ii, A baby's caul A thing, as *gossip-nurses know, That always brings a squall. |
| 1580 Hollyband Treas. Fr. Tong s.v. Croque, He is a *gossip pintepot. |
| 1842 F. Howes Horace's Sat. i. ix. 39 Now, now I see the doom approaching near, Which once was told me by a *gossip-seer. |
| 1824 Miss Mitford Village Ser. i. (1863) 208 A *gossip-shop called ‘literary’..where he talks and reads newspapers. 1965 M. Morse Unattached v. 153 The Hartford Swimming Club, which he described as ‘virtually a gossip shop’. |
| 1863 Mrs. C. Clarke Shaks. Char. xviii. 469 Some citizens meet in the street and talk, *gossip-wise, about the ill⁓ordering of government. |
| 1931 Punch 4 Nov. 499/2 Mr. Punch's Crown of Buttered Buns for Deserving *Gossip-Writers goes this week to the creator of the following. 1961 Ann. Reg. 1960 6 One pleasing feature of the engagement was that the gossip writers of the press..had entirely failed to forecast the event. |
| 1936 A. Huxley Olive Tree 117 Nowhere else in Europe is *gossip-writing a highly paid and creditable profession; nowhere else would such a headline as ‘Peer's Cousin in Car Smash’ be..imaginable. |
▪ II. gossip, v. (
ˈgɒsɪp)
[f. gossip n.] † 1. trans. To be a gossip or sponsor to; to give a name to.
Obs.| 1601 Shakes. All's Well i. i. 189 Pretty fond adoptious christendomes That blinking Cupid gossips. 1716 M. Davies Athen. Brit. II. 241 Arius's..Heathenish Pamphlet, gossop'd by the name of the..Fabulous Thalia (tho' too gentile a Miss for such Mock-Christenings of Sorcery-Ballads). |
† 2. intr. To act as a gossip, or familiar acquaintance; to take part (in a feast), be a boon-companion; to make oneself at home. Also
to gossip it.
Obs.| 1590 Shakes. Com. Err. v. i. 407 With all my heart, Ile Gossip at this feast. 1611 Cotgr., Voisiner,..to gossip it, or goe to visit neighbours. 1645 Milton Tetrach. Wks. (1851) 220 When sin revels and gossips within the arcenal of law..this is a faire limitation indeede. |
3. a. To talk idly, mostly about other people's affairs; to go about tattling.
| 1627 Drayton Moon-Calf 583 Mother Bumby, a mad iocund Mate As euer Gossipt. 1669 H. More Expos. 7 Ep. to 7 Ch. Pref. b 2, Swarms of men..went gadding and gossipping up and down, telling odd Stories to the people. 1786 F. Burney Diary Oct., I rang vainly for my maid..she was gossiping out of hearing. 1846 Mrs. Gore Sk. Eng. Char. (1852) 16 You gossip everywhere, of every thing. 1872 Earl Pembroke & G. H. Kingsley S. Sea Bubbles iii. 70 [We] called and gossipped for an hour with Mr. Saville and his family. |
| transf. and fig. 1784 Cowper Task v. 60 Now from the roost, or from the neighb'ring pale, Where..they gossiped side by side. 1856 Bryant After Tempest ii, The cheerful rivulet sung And gossiped, as he hastened ocean-ward. 1863 Longfellow Wayside Inn, Interl. to Student's T., Wild birds gossiping overhead. |
b. To write in a gossiping style.
| 1885 Manch. Guard. 20 July 5/5 A writer in All the Year Round gossips pleasantly on..the pets of authors. |
4. trans. To tell like a gossip; to communicate. Also with
around,
out,
over.
| 1611 Heywood Gold. Age i. Wks. 1874 III. 11 It is so Gossipt in the Queenes chamber. 1650 R. Stapylton Strada's Low C. Warres i. 20 The secret lay not long in the Embers, being gossiped out by a woman. 1786–1805 H. Tooke Purley 122 The substance of the Criticisms..was..gossiped by the present precious Secretary at War. 1827 Clare Sheph. Cal. 2 And wisdom, gossip'd from the stars. 1880 G. R. Sims Ball. Babylon 30 And they gossiped her story over in language a bit too plain. 1951 Auden Nones (1952) 5 Pawed-at and gossiped-over By the promiscuous crowd. 1956 W. Neil tr. Keller's Bible as Hist. vii. xxxi. 294 Two unusual dreams..were gossiped around the whole of the ancient orient. |