01/09/2026
Today I’m reclaiming a word.
Gossip.
It comes from the Old English ‘godsibb’ – originally referring to a godparent or someone joined to a family through a spiritual rather than biological relationship.
By around 1300, gossip could be a close friend, companion or neighbour.
Most importantly, it described a relationship, not the conversation they were having.
Over time, the word became increasingly associated with women, particularly the women who gathered around and supported one another through childbirth and the days that followed.
And these relationships mattered.
Women created networks that provided companionship, practical support and advocacy. They shared information. They supported one another through disputes with husbands, neighbours and authorities. They developed relationships and social identities that extended beyond their domestic lives.
They weren’t insignificant networks. They gave women connection, knowledge and collective agency. And in a society in which women’s lives and power were heavily constrained, that could be threatening.
Over the following centuries, there is a significant shift.
The women who gathered became increasingly labeled as meddlesome, troublesome or idle. By the early 1800s, gossip had acquired the meaning of “trifling talk” that sits much closer to how we understand the word today.
Think about what you mean when you accuse someone of gossiping. It’s probably not a compliment.
So today, I’m reclaiming it.
Because if women create spaces where they support one another, compare experiences, question authority, develop collective judgments, influence community opinion and act independently of controlled structures creating alternative sources of knowledge and power in the process – then I am there for everything that gossip once represented.
And that is exactly the kind of space I am creating with My Life Has Many Names.
We come together this Saturday. Registrations close tomorrow.
There is power in women gathering. There always has been.
Join me, won’t you?
