Way With Words: The Grapevine

Sarah told Tommy, who mentioned it to his brother, who immediately told his girlfriend, who told her best friend, who told you that Charlie and Angela are breaking up.

You get in the car, and “I Heard it Through the Grapevine” sung by Marvin Gaye comes on the radio, irony at it’s finest.

You indeed heard about the break-up ‘through the grapevine,’ and the song hit close to home, but the song “I Heard it Through the Grapevine” is not the origin of the alternative euphemism for the rumor mill.

The proverbial ‘grapevine’ comes from the telegraph system in the United States, and phrases.uk.org states that the entry was “first recorded in a US dictionary in 1852.”

The pole and wire system resembled the lines used by grape farmers to keep the vines in line.

It came as a surprise to those putting in the telegraphs that the outlying rural communities had a strong word of mouth communication in place, and thus allowed for quick communication once the telegraph was received.

It would appear that ‘small town talk’ hasn’t changed a bit.