To hear something through the grapevine or on the grapevine is to learn about something via an informal source or
hearsay, from another person; it may refer to an overheard conversation or anonymous sources of information. An Australian term used in rural Australia for the spreading of news or gossip through informal networks is the bush telegraph.
Etymology
One explanation for through or on the grapevine says that the phrase is based on the appearance of the thousands of kilometres of
telegraph
Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas p ...
wire installed across the US during the 19th century, strung together by telegraph poles, which resembled the strings used to train
grapevine
''Vitis'' (grapevine) is a genus of 79 accepted species of vining plants in the flowering plant family Vitaceae. The genus is made up of species predominantly from the Northern Hemisphere. It is economically important as the source of grapes, ...
s. Rumours were frequently spread using the telegraph system during the
American Civil War.
In his
autobiography
An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life.
It is a form of biography.
Definition
The word "autobiography" was first used deprecatingly by William Taylor in 1797 in the English peri ...
''
Up From Slavery'',
Booker T. Washington says that slaves in the
South kept up-to-date on current events by "what was termed the 'grape-vine' telegraph":
The
New York Public Library contends that the phrase derives from the infamous Grapevine
Tavern
A tavern is a place of business where people gather to drink alcoholic beverages and be served food such as different types of roast meats and cheese, and (mostly historically) where travelers would receive lodging. An inn is a tavern that ...
in
New York City's
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...
. During the Civil War it "...was a popular hangout of Union officers and Confederate spies... It was the ideal place to get news and information, or in the case of spies and politicians, the ideal place to spread rumors and gossip, leading to the popular phrase 'heard it through the grapevine'".
[''Republic of Dreams: Greenwich Village: The American Bohemia, 1910-1960'', Ross Wetzsteon, Simon & Schuster, 2002]
In popular culture
The term gained a boost in popularity through its use in the
Motown song "
I Heard It Through the Grapevine
"I Heard It Through the Grapevine" is a song written by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong for Motown Records in 1966. The first recording of the song to be released was produced by Whitfield for Gladys Knight & the Pips and released as a ...
", a major hit single for both
Marvin Gaye and
Gladys Knight & the Pips
Gladys Knight & the Pips were an American R&B, soul and funk family music group from Atlanta, Georgia, that remained active on the music charts and performing circuit for over three decades starting from the early 1950s.
Starting out as simply ...
in the late 1960s.
See also
*
Rumor
A rumor (American English), or rumour (British English; see spelling differences; derived from Latin:rumorem - noise), is "a tall tale of explanations of events circulating from person to person and pertaining to an object, event, or issue in p ...
*
Organizational communication
References
Further reading
*Clegg, Stewart R., et al. The SAGE Handbook of Organization Studies. SAGE Publications, 2006.
*"Heard It Through the Grapevine". (February 10, 1997). ''Forbes'', pp. 22
*
*Papa, Michael J., Tom D. Daniels and Barry K. Spiker. Organizational Communication: Perspective and Trends. SAGE Publications, 2008.
*Porterfield, Donald F. "Organizational Communication Developments from 1960 to the Present." The Journal of Business Communication (n.d.): 18-23.
*Robbins, Stephen; ''Essentials of Organizational Behavior'' (8th ed.) New Jersey:
Pearson Prentice Hall. {{ISBN, 0-13-144571-5.
*Rogelberd, Steven G.; "Encyclopedia of Industrial and Organizational Psychology"; SAGE Publications, 2007: 556-557
*Spillan, John E., Mary Mino and M. Susan Rowles. "Sharing Organizational Messages Through Effective Lateral Communication."
Qualitative Research Reports in Communication (2002): 96-104.
Rhetorical techniques