What does it mean if people have been getting their "messages crossed"?

I haven’t heard of someone getting “messages crossed”, but I think it sounds like it might be a variation of getting “wires crossed”, which basically means to misunderstand one another.

I believe it comes from the early days of telephony, as when telephone wires touched each other, messages could apparently get muddled up and rerouted incorrectly.

@reverie I always thought that getting one’s “wires crossed” was related to the operator with all the loose cords, plugging and unplugging calls rather than wires touching. I don’t know if you are old enough to remember all the scenes from movies with an operator (always a woman) sitting at a desk with a console full of wires and corresponding jacks into which the wires would be plugged (think electric guitar cord that runs to the amp).

@Kayak8 Sure, you’re probably right! I had always assumed it was something to do with telephony, but I’m sure your description is correct (it makes more sense than mine really!) :)

I have seen such movies depicting the amount of people that had to be employed in order to manually connect people! I also happened to learn about the first telephone today in Physics! :D

Thank you for your answers, I agree with your answers that it refers to a misunderstanding.

Here is an example: you paid a bill. you know you paid that bill, but somehow you received a statement stating the bill had not been paid. you call and the bill gets straightened out. what was the problem? the two crossed in the mail or got “their messages crossed”.

The readers are not getting the authors intended message.