different between account vs gossip

English

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /?.?ka?nt/
• Rhymes: -a?nt
• Hyphenation: ac?count

Etymology 1

From Middle English account, acounte, accounten, from Anglo-Norman acunte (“account”), from Old French aconte, from aconter (“to reckon”), from Latin comput? (“to sum up”).

Noun

account (plural accounts)

1. (accounting) A registry of pecuniary transactions; a written or printed statement of business dealings or debts and credits, and also of other things subjected to a reckoning or review. [from c. 1300]
2. (banking) A bank account.
   • 1910, Journal of the American Bankers Association Vol. XI, No. 1, American Bankers Association, page 3:

     The Pueblo bank has advised that the operator opened an account at that bank with currency, and a few days later withdrew the amount.

3. A statement in general of reasons, causes, grounds, etc., explanatory of some event; a reason of an action to be done.

   Synonyms: accounting, explanation
4. A reason, grounds, consideration, motive; a person's sake.
5. A record of events; a relation or narrative. [from c. 1610]

   Synonyms: narrative, narration, relation, recital, report, description, explanation

   • 1657, James Howell, Londonopolis: An Historical Discourse or Perlustration of the City of London

     A laudible account of the city of London.
6. An estimate or estimation; valuation; judgment.
7. Importance; worth; value; esteem; judgement.
8. Authorization as a specific registered user in accessing a system.

   Synonyms: membership, registration

   Meronym: username

9. (archaic) A reckoning; computation; calculation; enumeration; a record of some reckoning.
10. Profit; advantage.

Usage notes

• Abbreviations: (business): A/C, a/c, acct., acc.
• Account, narrative, narration, recital are all words applied to different modes of rehearsing a series of events
  • Account turns attention not so much to the speaker as to the fact related, and more properly applies to the report of some single event, or a group of incidents taken as whole; for example, a vivid account of a battle, of a shipwreck, of an anecdote, etc.
  • A narrative is a continuous story of connected incidents, such as one friend might tell to another; for example, a narrative of the events of a siege, a narrative of one's life, the narrative of the film etc.
  • Narration is usually the same as narrative, but is sometimes used to describe the mode of relating events; as, his powers of narration are uncommonly great.
  • Recital denotes a series of events drawn out into minute particulars, usually expressing something which peculiarly interests the feelings of the speaker; such as, the recital of one's wrongs, disappointments, sufferings, etc, a piano recital (played without sheet music), a recital of a poem (learned by heart).

Derived terms

Descendants

• ? Japanese: ????? (akaunto)
• ? Swahili: akaunti

Translations

Etymology 2

From Old French acounter, accomptere et al., from a- + conter (“to count”)). Compare count.

Verb

account (third-person singular simple present accounts, present participle accounting, simple past and past participle accounted)

1. To provide explanation.
   1. (obsolete, transitive) To present an account of; to answer for, to justify. [14th-17th c.]
   2. (intransitive, now rare) To give an account of financial transactions, money received etc. [from 14th c.]
   3. (transitive) To estimate, consider (something to be as described). [from 14th c.]

      Synonyms: see Thesaurus:deem

      • 1843, Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present, III.8:

        The Pagan Hercules, why was he accounted a hero?

   4. (intransitive) To consider that. [from 14th c.]

      • Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure.

   5. (intransitive) To give a satisfactory evaluation for financial transactions, money received etc. [from 15th c.]

   6. (intransitive) To give a satisfactory evaluation for (one's actions, behaviour etc.); to answer for. [from 16th c.]

   7. (intransitive) To give a satisfactory reason for; to explain. [from 16th c.]

   8. (intransitive) To establish the location for someone. [from 19th c.]

   9. (intransitive) To cause the death, capture, or destruction of someone or something (+ for). [from 19th c.]
2. To count.
   1. (transitive, now rare) To calculate, work out (especially with periods of time). [from 14th c.]
      • 1646, Sir Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica:

        neither the motion of the Moon, whereby moneths are computed; nor of the Sun, whereby years are accounted, consisteth of whole numbers, but admits of fractions, and broken parts, as we have already declared concerning the Moon.

   2. (obsolete) To count (up), enumerate. [14th-17th c.]
   3. (obsolete) To recount, relate (a narrative etc.). [14th-16th c.]
      • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.6:

        Long worke it were / Here to account the endlesse progeny / Of all the weeds that bud and blossome there [...].

Derived terms

Translations

Related terms

• accountable
• accountant

Further reading

• account on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• account (bookkeeping) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• account at OneLook Dictionary Search
• account in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from English account.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??k?u?nt/
• Hyphenation: ac?count

Noun

account n (plural accounts, diminutive accountje n)

1. a subscription to an electronic service

Related terms

• accountant

Descendants

• ? Indonesian: akun

Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from English account. Doublet of conto.

Noun

account m (invariable)

1. (computing) account

   Synonym: conto

Further reading

• account in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

English

Etymology

From Middle English godsybbe, godsib (“a close friend or relation, a confidant”), from Old English godsibb (“godparent, sponsor”), equivalent to god +? sib.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /???s.?p/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /???s.?p/
• Hyphenation: gos?sip

Noun

gossip (countable and uncountable, plural gossips)

1. (countable) Someone who likes to talk about other people's private or personal business.

   Synonyms: busybody, gossipmonger, meddler, rumormonger; see also Thesaurus:gossiper

   • 1752, Arthur Murphy, The Gray’s Inn Journal, Volume 1, No. 11, p. 73,^[1]

     A losing Gamester, who is obliged to drive into the City to dispose of a little South Sea Stock, gives the Hint there. The Gossips at Garraway’s have it in a Moment: At One it is buzz’d on Change, and the circulating Whisper in the Boxes interrupts the Play at Night.

   • 1846, Herman Melville, Typee, “Sequel Containing the Story of Toby,”^[2]

     He was an arrant old gossip, too; for ever coming off in his canoe to the ships in the bay, and regaling their crews with choice little morsels of court scandal […]

   • 1952, John Steinbeck, East of Eden, London: Heinemann, Chapter 48, p. 456,^[3]

     Alf could tell you about everybody on both sides of Main Street. He was a vicious male gossip, insatiably curious and vindictive without malice.

2. (uncountable) Idle talk about someone’s private or personal matters, especially someone not present.

   Synonyms: dirt, hearsay, rumor, scandal, scuttlebutt; see also Thesaurus:rumor

   • 1818, Jane Austen, Persuasion, Chapter 18,^[4]

     […] the thing is certainly true. It is not a mere bit of gossip. We have it from Frederick himself.

   • I ought to arise and go forth with timbrels and with dances; but, do you know, I am not inclined to revels? There has been a little—just a very little bit too much festivity so far …. Not that I don’t adore dinners and gossip and dances; not that I do not love to pervade bright and glittering places. […]

   • 1980, J. M. Coetzee, Waiting for the Barbarians, Penguin, 1982, Chapter 2, p. 32,^[5]

     The smaller a town the more richly it hums with gossip. There are no private affairs here. Gossip is the air we breathe.

   • 2018, Anna Burns, Milkman, London: Faber & Faber, Chapter 1,^[6]

     Intense nosiness about everybody had always existed in the area. Gossip washed in, washed out, came, went, moved on to the next target.

3. (uncountable) Idle conversation in general.

   Synonyms: chat, chinwag, chit-chat, natter; see also Thesaurus:chatter

   • 1868, Louisa May Alcott, Little Women, Chapter 38,^[7]

     The parlor was always bright and attractive, the chessboard ready, the piano in tune, plenty of gay gossip, and a nice little supper set forth in tempting style.

4. (uncountable) A genre in contemporary media, usually focused on the personal affairs of celebrities.

   • Little disappointed, then, she turned attention to "Chat of the Social World," gossip which exercised potent fascination upon the girl's intelligence. She devoured with more avidity than she had her food those pretentiously phrased chronicles of the snobocracy […] distilling therefrom an acid envy that robbed her napoleon of all its savour.

5. (obsolete) A sponsor; a godfather or godmother; the godparent of one's child.

   Synonym: sponsor

   Hyponyms: godfather, godmother

   • c. 1594, William Shakespeare, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act III, Scene 1,^[8]

     ’tis not a maid, for she hath had gossips [i.e. she could not be a virgin because she has children with godparents]

   • 1689, John Selden, Table-Talk, London: Jacob Tonson et al., 1696, “Prayer,” p. 134,^[9]

     Should a great Lady, that was invited to be a Gossip, in her place send her Kitchen-Maid, ’twould be ill taken;

   • 1741, Samuel Richardson, Pamela, London: for the author, Volume 3, Letter 38, p. 400,^[10]

     It seems, Miss, that if he stood not himself, or procur’d not Gossips for the Christening of the Children of his poorer Tenants, he always sent them a large rich Cake […]

6. (obsolete) A familiar acquaintance.

   Synonym: friend

   • c. 1612, William Shakespeare, Henry VIII, Act V, Scene 5,^[11]

     My noble gossips, ye have been too prodigal:

     I thank ye heartily;

7. (obsolete) Title used with the name of one's child's godparent or of a friend.
   • c. 1600, William Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act IV, Scene 2,^[12]

     What, ho, gossip Ford! what, ho!

   • 1905, William John Locke, The Morals of Marcus Ordeyne, Chapter 11,^[13]

     He was old and infirm, he wrote, and Gossip Death was waiting for him on the moor; but before he went to join him he would like to see Susan’s boy again.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

gossip (third-person singular simple present gossips, present participle gossiping or gossipping, simple past and past participle gossiped or gossipped)

1. (intransitive) To talk about someone else's private or personal business, especially in a manner that spreads the information.

   Synonyms: blab, dish the dirt, spill the tea, talk out of turn, tell tales out of school

   • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, Volume 1, Book 2, Chapter 4, p. 66,^[14]

     This Place then is no other than the Chandler’s Shop; the known Seat of all the News; or, as it is vulgarly called, Gossiping, in every Parish in England.

   • 1959, Muriel Spark, Memento Mori, New York: Time-Life, 1964, Chapter 8, p. 109,^[15]

     Godfrey felt guilty at having gossiped to Olive about Lettie’s changes in her will.

2. (intransitive) To talk idly.

   Synonyms: chat, chatter, chew the fat, chinwag, natter, prattle, shoot the breeze

   • 1889, Jerome K. Jerome, Three Men in a Boat, Chapter 14,^[16]

     […] on seats beneath the trees, the old men group of an evening to drink their ale and gossip over village politics;
3. (obsolete) To stand godfather to; to provide godparents for.
   • c. 1602, William Shakespeare, All’s Well That Ends Well, Act I, Scene 1,^[18]

     […] a world

     Of pretty, fond, adoptious christendoms [i.e. Christian names],

     That blinking Cupid gossips.

   • 1709, Richard Steele, The Tatler, No. 95 in The Lucubrations of Isaac Bickerstaff, London, 1712, p. 282,^[19]

     The Pleasure I used to take in telling my Boy Stories of the Battles, and asking my Girl Questions about the Disposal of her Baby, and the Gossiping of it, is turned into inward Reflection and Melancholy.

4. (obsolete) To enjoy oneself during festivities, to make merry.
   • c. 1596, William Shakespeare, King John, Act V, Scene 2,^[20]

     […] those baby eyes

     That never saw the giant world enraged;

     Nor met with fortune other than at feasts,

     Full of warm blood, of mirth, of gossiping.

Translations

References

• Michael Quinion (2004) , “Gossip”, in Ballyhoo, Buckaroo, and Spuds: Ingenious Tales of Words and Their Origins, Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Books in association with Penguin Books, ?ISBN

Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from English gossip

Noun

gossip m (invariable)

1. gossip (especially concerning famous or important people)

   Synonym: pettegolezzo

Derived terms

• gossipparo