To prepare for a column on our many words for tsismis I gathered all my Tagalog dictionaries from 1613 to 1860 only to realize t...

To prepare for a column on our many words for tsismis I gathered all my Tagalog dictionaries from 1613 to 1860 only to realize that National Artist Virgilio S. Almario made a shortlist. No need to reinvent the wheel so my Inquirer column today is a translation, from the original Filipino, of Almario's musings on: tsismis, chismis, alimuom and gossip.
I have had the good fortune of having lectured alongside Almario in San Francisco and Honolulu. On one long haul flight saw him deep at work on Noc...