A Brief History of the Term “Word-of-Mouth”

Word-of-mouth is one of those things that everybody thinks they clearly understand but they are, nevertheless, each talking about a different part of the elephant (Silverman, 2001). Some might think that the phrase is something new but it is not. In actual fact, the term has been used for a long time – probably much longer than any other term in marketing. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first written occurrence of the term “word-of-mouth” dates back to 1533. The dictionary defines the long-standing term as ‘oral communication’, ‘oral publicity’, or simply ‘speaking’, in contrast with ‘written and other method[s] of expression’. (Nyilasy, 2006.)

Sources:
Nyilasy, G. (2006). Word of Mouth: What We Really Know - And What We Don't. Connected Marketing: The Viral, Buzz and Word of Mouth Revolution. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann.
Silverman, G. (2001). The Secrets of Word-of-Mouth Marketing: How to Trigger Exponential Sales Through Runaway Word-of-Mouth. New York: American Marketing Association.