The word “gossip” originally had a very noble meaning. It is contracted from “god-sibling” and was the term used for the godparent at baptism. In time the word was extended in usage and applied to any close friend, and, more frequently, for a woman’s closest friends that assisted at the delivery of her baby. Well, no one knows exactly when some male kibitzer put the label on a female pow-wow, but the ignoble sense of the word stuck.
