Go Sip Some Ale

In the days before social media, opinion polls, television or even newspapers, the only way for politicians to find out what the common folk were thinking was to send their assistants out to pubs and taverns. They were told to “go sip some ale”, mingle and listen to people’s conversations. The instruction became shortened to “go sip”, which became used as a reference to local opinion and is the origin of the word “gossip”. Who’d’ve thunk?