grapevine

英 ['gre?pva?n] 美['ɡrepva?n]

低頻詞暢通詞匯TEM4

復數:?grapevines;

grapevine 葡萄藤，小道消息

來自18世紀初電報系統初問世時，鋪設的線路雜亂無章形如葡萄藤而得名。由電報引申詞義小道消息。

grapevine (n.): also grape-vine, 1736, from grape + vine. Meaning "a rumor; a secret or unconventional method of spreading information" (1863) is from the use of grapevine telegraph as "secret source of information and rumor" in the American Civil War; in reference to Southerners under northern occupation but also in reference to black communities and runaway slaves.
The false reports touching rebel movements, which incessantly circulated in Nashville, brings us to the consideration of the "grapevine telegraph"--a peculiar institution of rebel generation, devised for the duplex purpose of "firing the Southern heart," and to annoy the "Yankees." It is worthy of attention, as one of the signs of the times, expressing the spirit of lying which war engenders. But it is no more than just to say that there is often so little difference between the "grapevine" and the associated press telegraph, that they might as well be identical. ["Rosecrans' Campaign with the Fourteenth Corps," Cincinnati, 1863]

3. I had heard through the grapevine that he was quite critical of what we were doing.: 我聽到有傳言說他對我們在做的工作非常不滿。

4. I heard ( about ) it through [ on ] the ( neighborhood ) grapevine.: 我是經 ( 附近的 ) 謠傳聽到這事情的.

5. I heard through the grapevine that the minister is going to resign.: 我聽到小道消息,首相將辭職.