quidnunc

plural quidnuncs

1. archaicA person eager to learn news and scandal.First known use early 18th c.

   Incorrigible Quid-nuncs, / We would see what would come / Of pelting heaven with chunks / Of crude uranium.

   1962, Robert Frost, “The Milky Way Is a Cowpath”, in In the Clearing, New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, page 87

   4 more examples

   The College Sloven, or embroidered Spark, The purple Prelate, or the parish Clerk, The quiet Quidnunc, or demanding Prig, The plaintiff Tory, or defendant Whig;

   1730, Edward Young, “Epistle I.”, in Two Epistles to Mr. Pope, Concerning the Authors of the Age

   We all did our duty, which, in the patriot's, soldier's, and gentleman's language, is a very comprehensive word, of great honour, meaning, and import, and of which the generality of idle quidnuncs and coffee-house politicians can hardly form any but a very mean and contemptible idea.

   1785, Rudolf Erich Raspe, chapter V, in The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen

   […] but still something was necessary to convince the community at large, to quiet those prying quid nuncs who should come after them—in short, the world must be satisfied.

   1809, Diedrich Knickerbocker [pseudonym; Washington Irving], A History of New York, from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty. […], volume II, New York, N.Y.: Inskeep & Bradford, […], →OCLC, book V, pages 53–54

   His defeat on successive days of Vincent Richards and W. M. Johnston in the American championship of 1926 — and both his adversaries were favored by the quidnuncs to win — was but one of his many brilliant exploits in big events.

   1928 July 28, A. Wallis Myers, “France, the Lawn-Tennis Leader”, in The Atlantic, →ISSN

   Synonyms: busybody, buttinsky, gossip, newsmonger, yenta, carrytale, blab, blabbermouth