the.com/busybody
A volunteer detective whose only case is everyone else's business.
means Someone who meddles in other people's affairs, pumping them for gossip and unsolicited advice they never asked for.
from A straightforward compound from the 1500s: 'busy' plus 'body,' meaning literally a person (a 'body') who keeps themselves busy — except the busyness is other people's lives, not their own. The sense is unchanged for 500 years, which is its own small proof that the type never goes away.
- origin era
- term dates to the 1520s
- core trait
- mistakes nosiness for neighborliness
- tactic
- asks questions already knowing the answers
- irony
- rarely has gossip about themselves