Psithurism, or sometimes, if one is in an archaic mood, psithurisma, comes from the Ancient Greek ψίθυρος, meaning whispering, or slanderous speech. It is pronounced as you would 'sitherism'. It does not have the long lineage one might expect, appearing without premonition in 1844.

In English, it is used exclusively to refer to the whispering of the winds in the leaves of the trees, and the terrible, untrue things they say about us.

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