quidnuncn.
/ˈkwɪdnʌŋk/, U.S. /ˈkwɪdˌnəŋk/ A person who constantly asks: ‘What now?’; an inquisitive or nosy person; a gossip.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > speech > conversation > [noun] > chatting or chat > one who chats or gossips > one who spreads rumours
ear-rounder?1387
tidings-makerc1440
runkera1500
rumourera1616
scatter-storya1670
gazette1703
quidnunc1709
anecdote-monger1761
what-now1890
yenta1923
1709 R. Steele Tatler No. 10. ⁋2 The Insignificancy of my Manners..makes the Laughers called me a Quid Nunc.
1782 W. Cowper Wks. (1837) XV. 126 Acknowledge, now..that I should make no small figure among the quidnuncs of Olney.
1832 W. Irving Alhambra II. 95 He was a sort of scandalous chronicle for the quid-nuncs of Granada.
1876 L. Stephen Hours in Libr. 2nd Ser. v. 165 Some wretched intrigue which had puzzled two generations of quidnuncs.
1945 R. Hargreaves Enemy at Gate 130 The quidnuncs of the Horse Guards had done little more to the military machine than tinker with non-essential details of..uniforms.
1978 R. Thomas Chinaman's Chance x. 105 The born gossipmonger, the quidnunc who would almost rather die than be the last to know.
2004 Kirkus Rev. (Nexis) 1 Sept. A quintessential quidnunc chronicles his continent-hopping capers as photographer to the stars and the royals.
Derivatives
ˈquidnuncism n. now rare curiosity; love of news or gossip.
ΚΠ
1816 B. Waterhouse Jrnl. Young Man Mass. (1911) vi. 298 Our commander's pocket was not the lighter for New England ‘quidnuncism’.
1847 J. Cairns Let. in Life (1895) xi. 281 The ne plus ultra of disappointed religious quid-nunc-ism.
1901 Athens (Ohio) Messenger & Herald 21 Nov. 2/3 Solistry is now becoing a fashionable fad among those who sit upon the mountain-top of elite social buncombeism, quidnuncism, gossipism and gossameric insipidity.
ΚΠ
1804 in Spirit of Public Jrnls. (1805) VIII. 93 His attachment to quidnunckery is as constant as ever.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2007; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1709