When people want to be circumspect about deal their source of data , they sometimes say they “ heard it through the grapevine . ”
“ I pick up through the grapevine Steve and Betty are pay off divorced , ” they might say . Or , “ I heard through the word of mouth that fresh eatery is closing . ” By the 1960s , the set phrase was so entrenched that Marvin Gaye performed a hit birdsong about it . ( Which , we heard through the grapevine , was originallyrecordedby Gladys Knight and the Pips . )
What is it with pipeline ? Why do we link up them with rumor - pitch communications ?
There are a few possible explanations . According toGrunge , the idiom might date back to the development of the telegraphy scheme in the 1800s . to send and receive content , miles of telegraph line were string up on poles and knitted throughout the country . Because these lines resembled the lines used to control the growth of grapevine , mass began to say they “ get wind it through the word of mouth , ” using it as slang for the telegraphy system .
The musical phrase grew in popularity during the Civil War , when communication through the “ grapevine ” became pressing . But it was also questionable , as Confederate soldiers were known to try andspreadmisinformation to put off Union forces . Eventually , it come to mean information through word of mouth that may be of questionable veracity .
One lieutenant , Horace Carpenter , pen in 1891 of being in a prisoner of war camp for Confederates during the war , where hearsay spread of prisoner exchange that never follow to pass : " The ‘ grape vine - vine ’ spoke to us of little else . The master lineament of this prison telegraph was its complete unreliability . As I think , it was never right , even by accident . "
Another theory : In the late 1800s and early 1900s , citizenry would congregate at The Old Grapevine , a tavern in New York City . Like most bars , rumors and rumormonger flowed freely , and it was therefore possible to see something at the Grapevine . While it did n’t forge the musical phrase , it may have helped popularize it .
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