Tattled

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To inform authority about someone's misconduct or private matters, often seen as untrustworthy or immature
2. To expose another's wrongdoings or private actions, typically perceived as gossiping or betraying confidence
3. To disclose another person's misdeeds or secrets to someone in authority, which may be considered disloyal or childish behavior

Etymology: The verb "tattled" is simply the past tense and past participle of "tattle," so the story belongs to the base word, and its most striking feature is how sound-driven it is. "Tattle" comes from Middle Dutch "tatelen" or "tateren," meaning "to babble" or "chatter," and the word began as imitation of the rapid, fussy sound of idle talk. Its relatives spread across the Low German and Frisian languages, where forms like "tätelje" and "tatern" carried the same sense of meaningless chattering. English picked up the idea of gossip rather than mere babble. Middle English had "dadel" and "dadull," meaning "tattling" or "gossip," and a related form, "twaddle," shows the same pattern of sound shifting into a sense of silly talk. Over time, "tattle" narrowed from general chatter into the specific act of telling on someone, which is how "tattled" came to mean reporting others' wrongs.

Synonyms: reported, revealed, disclosed

Antonyms: concealed, withheld