Hi this is Tutor Nick P idioms 340. The idiom today is to hear something through
the grapevine. Okay. Let's take a look at the note here. If someone says that he or
she heard something through the grapevine, it means that someone has
learned of the information in a very informal way especially through gossip.
Yeah. Sometimes we we hear this like if somebody found out some especially
personal information about another person and if that person finds out. How
did you hear ? And they say well I heard it through the grapevine, usually means
that people don't want to say exactly how they heard or who told them. So they
will use this phrase that they heard it through the grapevine. Okay. All right. So
again why don't we say ... yeah that's another one I always wondered why do we
say grapevine ? All right. Even though vines are kind of connected,
so you can kind of think of something in your mind but you still didn't quite get
the connection. So let's look at the note here so we can kind of clarify this. The
origin of this phrase dates back to the Civil War. One of the earliest telegraph
systems was actually called "The Grapevine Telegraph. "Okay. It originally
got the name because the wires often got tangled. You know twisted together or
tied up twisted together like an actual grapevine and it picked up the
nickname. So it was the called "The Grapevine Telegraph during the Civil War
it was used to communicate information about how the battles were going. Like who's
winning who's losing, but it was also used for propaganda.
You know, like government propaganda and fake news. Even back in the Civil War we
had fake news. Many people came to realize that information learned through
the Grapevine Telegraph was unreliable, just in the same way as gossip is. You
know, often not always reliable as well. So with the two.... they made the
connection with the two. Thus the phrase to hear it through the grapevine was
born. So just because you hear something through gossip. You know , you can't always
believe it 100%. Even though, sometimes people think gossip is a little bit of
fun and enjoyable. It's not always true. Sometimes the things are very very wrong
or very very incorrect. Or you know people ... one person says something and the
story changes as it gets passed around and it ends up being something very
different. All right. Anyway. Let's look at ... we have three
examples here. You know, here's the first one. Marvin Gaye had a very famous song " I
Heard It Through the Grapevine. " Yeah. Most Americans probably associate this phrase
with that . Became a very, very popular song and it was often used in
movies too and movie soundtracks too. It was probably one of Marvin Gaye's biggest
hits. Even though unfortunately Marvin Gaye
died kind of young in a very tragic way. But actually in the song, what it was
about was I heard it through the grapevine. I heard it through the
grapevine that you know, his girlfriend was cheating on him basically. So that's
how he heard it through the grapevine and that's the way the song went.
So okay. Anyway, let's continue. Number two. I heard it through the grapevine
that Bob and Jane may be getting a divorce.
Okay. Yeah. So this is another way that we might hear it. So you heard it through
you know, informal talk or informal speech.
Probably gossip again sometimes gossip is correct, but not always so you can't
trust it completely. Number three. I heard it through the grapevine that he was gay.
Maybe, maybe it's true maybe it's not true but that's another thing you heard
it through some informal talk and you know, maybe. Okay. Anyway, I hope you got it. I hope
it was clear. I hope it was informative. Thank you for your ... thank you for your time.
Bye-bye.