the.com/rumor
a lie wearing a runner's number, sprinting before truth ties its shoes
means A piece of unverified information that spreads from person to person, often distorting as it travels.
from From Latin 'rumor,' meaning a noise, murmur, or common talk — the low buzz of a crowd before anyone knows the facts. It traveled through Old French 'rumour' into English in the late 14th century, carrying that same sense of a sound moving through many mouths.
- speed
- Falsehoods spread six times faster than truth online
- latin root
- Comes from rumorem, meaning common talk or noise
- war weapon
- Armies have planted rumors to break enemy morale
- brain bias
- Repetition alone makes a rumor feel true
- telephone effect
- Each retelling reliably mutates the original story
swift-levine feud — unconfirmed speculation about taylor swift and blake lively's friendship ending around 2012-2013
biggie tupac shooting — 20+ years of circulating theories about who killed both rappers in 1996-1997, never confirmed
mh370 disappearance theories — thousands of competing rumors about malaysia airlines flight 370 since march 2014