Gossipped

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To have participated in informal discussions or chatter focused on another person's private matters or experiences
2. To have conveyed or disseminated potentially unverified stories or details regarding someone's life or behavior with an informal tone
3. To have engaged in casual conversation about the private affairs of others, often sharing rumors or speculation

Etymology: "Gossipped" is the past tense of "gossip," so its story is really the story of the noun. Centuries ago, a gossip was a sponsor at a baptism. The Old English "godsibb" combined "god," meaning God, with "sibb," meaning related, so a godparent was someone bound to a child by a spiritual kinship. Over time, "gossib" came to mean any close friend or confidant, someone a person might share private matters with. The shift to idle talk happened because those confidants were exactly the people who passed along news. Chatting with a close companion about household affairs gradually became chatting about other people's business, and by the time the sense of "discussing others' personal affairs" had settled in, the original godly relationship had been forgotten. The French word "commérage," used for the same sort of chatter, shows a similar path, since it grew out of the idea of a comrade or companion.

Synonyms: chattered, chit-chatted, rumored, buzzed, scandalized

Antonyms: kept quiet, withheld, suppressed, silenced, concealed