hearsay

From Middle English hyere-zigginge (1340), here sey (ca. 1438), from the phrase heren seien (“to hear [people] say”). Compare equally old Middle High German hœrsagen (14th c.), whence modern Hörensagen.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈhɪəseɪ/
• (General American, Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈhɪɹˌseɪ/

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• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈhɪəsæɪ/
• Hyphenation: hear‧say

hearsay (usually uncountable, plural hearsays)

1. Information that was heard by one person about another that cannot be adequately substantiated.
2. (law) Evidence based on the reports of others, which is normally inadmissible because it was not made under oath, rather than on personal knowledge.
3. (law) An out-of-court statement offered in court to prove the truth of the matter asserted (or the in-court testimony which recites such a statement), which is normally inadmissible (because it is not subject to cross-examination) unless it falls under one of a number of exceptions.

• gossip
• report
• rumor

• hearsay evidence
• double hearsay

• as they say
• hear
• hear tell
• so they say
• you know what they say

• “hearsay”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “hearsay”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.