What is Gossip?

There is obviously a close relationship between 'gossip,' 'rumor,' and 'hearsay.'
My take would be:
Hearsay-- repeating of a claimed fact or incident not witnessed or directly known by the one telling
Rumor-- informal report told from an unofficial or unreliable source, likely repeated
Gossip-- revealing of personal, particularly sensational, claims-- true or alleged-- about another person for the purpose of defaming the subject's character

 

Railroad: Depending on the context, we use "railway", "rail", "train" or nothing at all. An example for each: "Hornby was a company that made model railways." "Last time I went to London, I went by coach. Next time, I will go by rail." "Last time I went to London, I went by coach. Next time, I will take the train." "I need to get to the station quickly." (Unless the context demands otherwise, "station" = "railway station").

Sidewalk: Pavement, path, or footpath.

Condo: (in the sense of an apartment within a building) flat or apartment (in the sense of a building containing individual apartments) a block of flats.

I suppose if we want to take this further, we should start a new thread.

Happy New Year!

 

All the above categories sure 'sound' like gossip, I'd say, personally.

Ed

 

Don't the English residents also speak of 'roads' as being 'carriageways', there?? Just wonderin'. BTW, my asking of this question tells me I need to make a correction to an unrelated post I made, in another forum.

Ed

 

Ed, I am taking the liberty of starting a new thread for this, with the title "Differences bewteen British English and American English", on the "All Other Discussions" forum. I'll answer your question there. I hope that is OK with you - I just thought that we were getting away from the subject of this thread.

 

As I said, there is definitely a 'relationship' between these 3, but they need not overlap in all cases. For example, to say "I heard it's snowing in Kansas City today" would be hearsay to anyone who has not been there and seen it snowing, and it might qualify as a rumor. But would it be gossip-- scripturally forbidden as a sin-- to say that?

PS: It may depend on perception, but if an 'official' report from the National Weather Service siad it is snowing in Kansas City today, I think that would then make it otherwise than a rumor.