Old wives’ tale

An old wives’ tale is a widely held belief that has been proved to be apocryphal or incorrect, of the kind told by garrulous old women. Although it appears in the New Testament, I Timothy 4:7 “Refuse profane and old wives’ fables” (this was from the King James Version of 1611), the expression is very much older, from at least the 14th century. ‘Old wife’ was a disparaging term for a woman from the 16th century, akin to fishwife.