the talk of the town

To be a person or topic that many people are currently talking about in a certain area (typically a small town), most often due to their involvement in some recent event. My brother was the talk of the town after leading the team to a state championship. How did you not hear about the fire at city hall last night? It's the talk of the town!

A person or topic that many people are currently talking about in a certain area, typically due to recent eventfulness. My brother was the talk of the town after leading the high school team to a state championship. How did you not hear about the fire at city hall last night? It's the talk of the town!

A subject of considerable gossip, as in Turning up drunk at the debutante ball will certainly make you the talk of the town. Already mentioned in two Latin sources, this expression surfaced in English in the mid-1600s.

The latest gossip, a widespread rumor. This term appears in at least two Latin sources, Horace’s Satires and Ovid’s Amores (“You do not know it, but you are the talk of the town”). Samuel Pepys used the expression in his Diary (Sept. 2, 1661): “Though he be a fool, yet he keeps much company, and will tell all he sees or hears, so a man may understand what the common talk of the town is.” Since its earliest publication, in 1925, the New Yorker magazine has carried a department called “Talk of the Town,” at one time written entirely by James Thurber, and consisting of short articles of current interest.