The word gossip comes from ‘God’ and ‘sybbe’. It has also been defined as meaning -god speaking through woman.
‘The gossips’ originally were women who had a spiritual contract such as god parents and women invited as friends to help a woman in labour. They were also known as ‘the women who saw the future’ ‘the spinners’ and the ‘givers of gifts and curses’ (like the fairies in sleeping beauty).

(information from The Moon and the Virgin: Reflections on the Archetypal Feminine. New York: Harper and Row, 1980.ISBN 0-06-090793-2. Hard cover ISBN 0-06-011703-6. Also printed in the UK in 1980 and 1991 by The Women’s Press.)