[[Image:For0505l.jpg|thumb]]
'''Hearsay''' is an out-of court statement, by someone other than the [[witness]] testifying, admitted to prove the truth of what was asserted in the statement. Literally it comes from "hear it said," which is inherently unreliable as to the truth what was supposedly said. [[Gossip]] is a type of hearsay. The concept is best thought of as codifying the unreliability of secondary or tertiary knowledge.