Gossip and Talebearers

UNCOMMON STORIES BEHIND COMMON WORDS

Gossip - In merry old England, a godsib was a godparent of either sex, sib being the Anglo-Saxon word for "kinsman." When godsibs were together, particularly female ones, no doubt a fair share of idle talk occurred, and the word soon lost its definition and its religious context and acquired the meaning of one with whom one chats intimately. 

By Shakespeare's time one's gossips were also those close friends who attended one in childbirth (during which there was generally ample time for tittle-tattle). Not until the 19th century was idle conversation itself termed "gossip."

Gossip
O.E. godsibb "godparent," from God + sibb "relative" (see sibling). Extended in M.E. to "any familiar acquaintance" (mid-14c.), especially to woman friends invited to attend a birth, later to "anyone engaging in familiar or idle talk" (1560s). Sense extended 1811 to "trifling talk, groundless rumor." The verb meaning "to talk idly about the affairs of others" is from 1620s.


MV: Jn14:1-6, 23
Bib1Yr: 2S 19-24:1K1-3David and His sons