hearsay

Etymology

It is formed from English hear + say,^[2][3][4] from the phrase “to hear say”,^[5][6][2] in which the second verb is an infinitive.^[4] Etymonline traces the phrase to Middle English heren seien and Old English herdon secgan,^[2] and Skeat quotes ic secgan hyrde (“I heard say”) from “Beowulf”.^[4] The Shorter Oxford and Dictionary.com see the noun as beginning in the phrase “by hear say”, a translation of Old French par ouïr dire (“by hear say”), now French ouï-dire.^[7][8] Etymonline compares the parallel formations Dutch hooren zeggen and German hörensagen.^[2][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

What one has heard others say, usually with the suggestion that it can't be relied on: about 1533, in G. Du Wes's Introductorie for to lerne Frenche.^[5] Merriam-Webster Unabridged has about 1532,^[6] and Dictionary.com 1525–35.^[8] The Shorter Oxford and Etymonline both date the word earlier, to late Middle English and the mid-15th century.^[7][2]

Semantic evolution

The OED's definition notes that the word usually implies information that can't be trusted.^[5] It soon came to stand before other nouns, in the sense "of the nature of hearsay" or "based on what one has heard": Etymonline dates this adjectival use to the 1570s, and the OED quotes Sidney's Arcadia, written before 1586.^[2][5] Johnson (1755) defined it as "report; rumour; what is not known otherwise than by account from others".^[3] A countable use, a single report or piece of gossip, is recorded from before 1642,^[5] and the Shorter Oxford now calls it archaic.^[7] The legal term hearsay evidence, testimony about what others have said rather than what the witness knows at first hand, is dated to the 1670s by Etymonline and to 1753 by the OED,^[2][5] and in law the word now also stands alone for such evidence, which is generally inadmissible.^[10][11] Carlyle used it as a verb in 1837, to repeat rumours.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1533 – information received by word of mouth; rumour.^[5][12]
• 1570s – adjective, based on report.^[2] The OED's first example is in Sidney's Arcadia, written before 1586.^[5]
• before 1642 – a single report; a piece of gossip.^[5][12]
• 1670s – hearsay evidence.^[2] The OED's first example of the legal use is from 1753.^[5]
• 1837 – verb, to repeat rumours, in Carlyle's French Revolution.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. What one has heard from others and can't confirm; rumour or gossip: We knew of the merger only by hearsay.^{[13][14][6][5]}
2. (law) Testimony about what someone else said rather than what the witness knows personally, usually not admissible as evidence.^{[10][14][11][6]}
3. (archaic) A single report or piece of gossip.^[7][5][6]

Adjective

1. Based on what others have reported: a hearsay account of the fire.^[9][15][7]

Word family

• hearsay evidence

Related words

• hear
• say

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
4. ^ a b c Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ a b Webster's New World College Dictionary (2014), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ a b Garner, Bryan A., ed. (2004), Black's Law Dictionary, 8th ed., St. Paul, Minn.: Thomson West
11. ^ a b Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
13. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
14. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
15. ^ The Chambers Dictionary (2014), 13th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers