grapevine
the unofficial word-of-mouth communication system (i.e. talking in the canteen)
TRANSLATION
Der inoffizielle Weg einer Nachricht innerhalb einer Organisation
STATISTICS
IN THE PRESS
In some companies, the GRAPEVINE is a better source of information than the management.
Did you
know?
To hear something through the grapevine is to learn of something informally and unofficially by means of gossip and rumour.
The usual implication is that the information was passed person to person by word of mouth, perhaps in a confidential manner among friends or colleagues.
There are several expressions of this type, of which a well-known couple are "bush telegraph" and "jungle telegraph". These are historically rather odd, because both were created well after the era of the telegraph. But that’s because both are imitations of the first such expression, "grapevine telegraph", which is where our term comes from.
The phrase was invented in the USA sometime in the late 1840s or early 1850s. It provided a comparison between the twisted stems of the grapevine and the straight lines of the then new electric telegraph marching across America. The telegraph was the marvel of the 1840s (Samuel Morse’s first line was opened between Washington and Baltimore on 24 May 1844 and rapidly expanded in the following decade), vastly improving the speed of communication between communities.
In comparison, the grapevine telegraph was by individual to individual, often garbling the facts or reporting untruths (so reflecting the gnarled and contorted stems of the grapevine), but likewise capable of transmitting vital messages quickly over distances.
You may have heard the pop song "Heard it through the grapevine"
Gladys Knight and the Pips (1967), Marvin Gaye (1968)
(from Michael Quinion)
The usual implication is that the information was passed person to person by word of mouth, perhaps in a confidential manner among friends or colleagues.
There are several expressions of this type, of which a well-known couple are "bush telegraph" and "jungle telegraph". These are historically rather odd, because both were created well after the era of the telegraph. But that’s because both are imitations of the first such expression, "grapevine telegraph", which is where our term comes from.
The phrase was invented in the USA sometime in the late 1840s or early 1850s. It provided a comparison between the twisted stems of the grapevine and the straight lines of the then new electric telegraph marching across America. The telegraph was the marvel of the 1840s (Samuel Morse’s first line was opened between Washington and Baltimore on 24 May 1844 and rapidly expanded in the following decade), vastly improving the speed of communication between communities.
In comparison, the grapevine telegraph was by individual to individual, often garbling the facts or reporting untruths (so reflecting the gnarled and contorted stems of the grapevine), but likewise capable of transmitting vital messages quickly over distances.
You may have heard the pop song "Heard it through the grapevine"
Gladys Knight and the Pips (1967), Marvin Gaye (1968)
(from Michael Quinion)
