More about Words

Realising what a waste it is that many of the books on my shelves have never been read, I’ve started reading a few pages at breakfast time.  The other day I found a paragraph that followed on neatly from something I wrote recently about care in our use of words.  ‘Medieval Gentlewoman’ by ffiona Swabey is based on the life of a Suffolk heiress, Alice de Bryene (c.1360-1435), and this particular passage runs as follows:

“The gossip was an important figure in the later Middle Ages, from the word godsib (sibling) or godparent, denoting the spiritual affinity of the baptised and their sponsors.  More significantly a gossip was a woman who attended a close friend when she was in labour and often assisted at the birth.  Such women were part of the informal domestic webs of information and power, passing on their wisdom and experience with little respect for hierarchy, though at the same time they adhered to traditional and conservative concepts and their opinions must often have been prejudiced.  Many of their ‘old wives’ tales’ consisted of practical advice on sex, rearing animals, horticulture, cures and the interpretation of dreams and omens.  Predictably, ‘women’s tongues’ were usually conceived as being divisive, the ready butt of medieval misogyny, though it was not until the mid-sixteenth century that the gossip became a pejorative figure.”

Considering this development in the meaning and use of the word, I wasn’t surprised to find that my on-line Bible offers no mention of ‘gossip’ in the King James translation.  Its modern equivalent, however, lists eight occurrences.  Four of these are from Proverbs, notably ​​​​​​ “The words of a gossip are like choice morsels; they go down into the person’s innermost being.” (Prov. 18:8), and there is only one from the New Testament, where St Paul gives voice to his misgivings about the infant church in Corinth maintaining their standards of behaviour in his absence (2Cor. 12:20).  The King James version uses ‘whisperings’ for ‘gossip’ here, and for its purveyor in Proverbs, ‘talebearer’.

Both of these help us to distinguish between the virtuous ‘godsib’ of centuries past and the less worthy practices to which the word was later applied.  Those of us who have reached mature years may remember being told as children that ‘all whispers tell lies,’ or having the spreading of malicious falsehoods about our playmates being described as ‘telling tales’.  We don’t have to dig very deeply to find a Biblical source for many of the wise sayings of the older generation.

So what might these observations tell us today?  Firstly, I suggest, we should view changes in church and society in a balanced way, accepting with approval the benefits they bring, while not forgetting the good aspects of what has been replaced.  Secondly, when condemning tittle-tattle from the standpoint of virtue, we should also remember, and spare a thought of thanks and praise for siblings and friends – our own and those of others around us – as sources of comfort, encouragement and hope.