Lately I've run into the word dish used to mean gossip. Does anyone know where this originated?

My guess would be that it is an abbreviation of 'dish the dirt'. The dirt was gossip and someone would dish it up. Where that came from though I don't know.

dish has been used figuratively for a long time:

1606 Shakes. Tr. & Cr. v. i. 10 Thou full dish of Foole. 1608 I Per. iv. vi. 160 My dish of chastity. 1708 Motteux Rabelais v. vii. (1737) 24 Roger+had a Dish of Chat with her. 1753 Gray Lett. Wks. 1884 II. 241 To entertain you with a dish of very choice erudition. 1820 Lady Granville Lett. (1894) I. 183 This new dish of Continental troubles. 1836 Backwoods Canada 183 For the sake of a dish of gossip.

Ah, well, so when did it get to mean an attractive lady Tsuwm?

I don't know about "the latest dish," but I've always liked the word "quidnunc" for a person who gossips. It literally means "what now?" in Latin.

I must quote Dr. Sowder here, past professor of American Literature at Longwood.

When lecturing us 18-year-olds (centuries ago) on the evil of gossip, he smiled his huge-lipped smile and said,

The definition of a bitch is a woman who must tell the truth..

I always liked thinking about that definition and noticing, centuries since, how often that definition has proven to be true.

Best regards,
WildWords

Oh, you're in trouble now!

My Slang and Euphemism Dictionary says:

dish...4. to engage in gossip; to dish out gossip. (US homosexual use, mid 1900s-pres.)

Unfortunately, it doesn't speculate on how the term came to be used in connection with gossip.

The word 'gossip' as a noun originally was 'godsib', i.e., someone who was related to another by being a godparent. So that if I am someone's godfather, the parents of my godchild are my godsibs and vice versa. This originally presumed a kinship or very close friendship, so that gossips were quite intimate with each other. You find the word used frequently in Bocaccio, also in some English works. The word seems to have gone out of use by the late 17th century. (This is without LIU -- doubtless one of the OED possessors can provide more accurate info.)

As to the modern use of the word, gossips are not exclusively women, contrary to what many men may think. There are a couple words I have heard for a male gossip, but offhand, I can't think what they are. Let's hear what y'all have heard or seen.

Sparteye: Thanks for the reference. The verb form is familiar, going back at least to Lorenz Hart's lyric (and the singular does seem appropriate here) to The Lady Is a Tramp: ''Won't dish the dirt with the rest of the girls." What seemed new to me was dish as a noun, as in "Wait till you hear the latest dish about *****."

as I tried to suggest above, but seemingly wasn't obvious enough about it, it could be just a truncation of "a dish of gossip."

-ron o.
Lege meas labras.

Dish is also used in a idiom by teen age girls all the time--She can dish it out, but she can't take it--

used about a someone who is known to gossip, but gets in a huff if any own says anything about her.. the same goes for teasing.. or name calling... any one who acts one way, but expect other to act towards them differently..

the kind of person who says "do as i say, not as i do".

"She can dish it out, but she can't take it" -- used about a someone who is known to gossip, but gets in a huff if any own says anything about her

Which reminds me of the concluding stanza of an Ogden Nash poem (no surprise there! ) titled A Little Bit of Gossip Does Me Good:

Oh, I do love a little bit of gossip.
But for scandal or for spite there's no excuse!
To think of Mrs. Page
Telling lies about my age!
Well! Her tongue is like her morals: rather loose.
Mrs. Murgatroyd eats opium for breakfast,
And then claims I'm running after Mr. Wood.
That's the sort of vicious slander
That arouses all my dander,
But a little bit of gossip does me good.

Do people still use dish to mean a pretty woman, as in, "Hey, did you see Patricia? She is such a dish!"?

Y'all got me so confused in my punctuation thread I have no idea where all my question marks and exclamation points go anymore dag nabbit.

We're not ones to go 'round spreadin' rumors
Really, we're just not the gossipin' kind ~
No, you'll never hear one of us repeatin' gossip,
So you better be sure and listen close the first time!

An incendiary question: Who gossips more, men or women?
[ducking for cover -e]

An incendiary question: Who gossips more, men or women?

I see this as a question not of quantity, but of quality.

Men gossip about lofty events, like should Russia invade China, will the New York Jets trade Warren Miletkzy for a top pick running Back, etc., while the gossip of women is more trivial, like, where they will want dinner after what movie, what house to buy, where they will let their husband sit in that new house, etc..

Chile, you been listenin in on the wrong women, that's a fact.

Who gossips more, men or women?

I would like to proudly report that my brother won the award for biggest gossip in his high school graduating class of 287 people (of whom about half were girls). (Just try having a phone conversation with this guy without being interrupted at least 5 times by call waiting!!! )

Chile, you been listenin in on the wrong women, that's a fact.

Consuelo is cross-threading to "terms of endearment".