Word Guy goes tabloid! Today's column is filled with nothing but "libel," "slander," "scandal" and "gossip."

If you carve a derogatory epithet on a tree, you may be accused of libel. That's appropriate, for the word "libel" comes from the Latin word for bark. (If you carve an insult into a tree but don't take any action against your target, is your bark worse than your bite?)

The ancient Romans wrote most of their books on the inner bark of the papyrus plant, "liber" in Latin. Soon "liber" came to denote a book, and "libellus," a small book. Eventually "libellus" morphed into "libelle" in French and "libel" in English.

By the 1500s, "libel" had come to denote the small book we now call a leaflet. Because these "libels" were often screeds denouncing prominent people, "libel" came to mean the publication of any harmful, defamatory statement.

Just as "libel" is rooted in bark, "slander" grew from another woody item: a stumbling block. The ancient Greek word "skandalon," meaning a stumbling block or trap, became "scandalum" in Latin, where it took on a metaphoric sense of "something that causes sin."

Eventually, "scandalum" became "esclandre" in Old French and "slander" in modern English, where it now means "the uttering of false and damaging claims against someone." (In today's legal use, "slander" refers to defamation by spoken words, and "libel" refers to defamation by written words.)

The Latin word "scandalum" also gives us the English "scandal." While "scandal" originally referred only to the disgrace caused by committing an actual sin, we now apply it to any mischief involving the Kardashians.

Scandals like this are sure to generate "gossip," a word that descends from the Old English "godsibb," a person spiritually related to another, such as a godmother. In Middle English, "godsibb" changed its spelling to "gossip" and its meaning to "a close friend or comrade." Such a buddy is always dishing out juicy rumors, so "gossip" came to refer to the rumors themselves.

Gossip is often spread through the "grapevine." This term, a shortening of "grapevine telegraph," arose during the mid-1850s when the network of telegraph lines connecting the nation reminded people of a sprawling grapevine.

During the Civil War, sensitive military intelligence was sent via the telegraph grapevine, thus "grapevine" became a general term for any method of transmitting reliable, inside information. Or at least that's the way I heard it.

Rob Kyff, a teacher and writer in West Hartford, Connecticut, invites your language sightings. His book, "Mark My Words," is available for $9.99 on Amazon.com. Send your reports of misuse and abuse, as well as examples of good writing, via email to WordGuy@aol.com or by regular mail to Rob Kyff, Creators Syndicate, 737 3rd Street, Hermosa Beach, California, 90254.

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