word on the wire

Modeled after word on the street once digital communications via the internet entered the daily life of the general public. The phrase might have occurred sporadically earlier, in reference to newswires when wire services were telegraphic (before the internet), but the phrase had no currency before the early consumer-internet era, and it has very little currency since then.

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word on the wire

1. (idiomatic, dated) The rumour or news going around on the internet, in business, on the street, or in social circles.