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news

Etymology and origin of the English word news

History Permalink
Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation, Calque
First attested
before 1382 (Wycliffe Bible)

Pronunciation

  • IPA: UK /njuːz/, US /nuːz/, /njuːz/[1]

Etymology

It is Middle English newes, the plural of the noun new “a new thing”,[2][3][4] modelled on Old French noveles (modern nouvelles), plural of novele, or on Medieval Latin nova (“new things”), plural of novum.[2][5][6][7] The French word had been used in Bible translations to render the Medieval Latin one.[2] The Shorter Oxford compares the plural form of odds.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

New things, novelties: before 1382, in the Wycliffe Bible.[3][5] The singular noun newe “a new thing” is older, from about 1200.[3]

Semantic evolution

The sense “tidings, report of recent events” is recorded in 1417 by the HTOED[8] and probably before 1437 by Barnhart.[3] News has been treated as singular since at least the 1560s, though it was sometimes still plural from the 17th to the 19th century,[2] and the original sense “novelties” died out in the 16th century.[5] The doubtful number probably encouraged the folk etymology that news stands for North, East, West and South, which is attested by 1640, mostly in jest-books.[2][9] Newspaper is from 1670,[3] and the news meant the newspapers from 1738 to 1888.[8] A radio or television news programme is from 1923.[2] Bad news “an unpleasant person or situation” is from 1926, no news is good news goes back to the 1640s, and that's news to me to 1889.[2] The verb “to report, to spread as news” (1640s) survives only in dialect.[2][5]

Timeline

  • c. 1200 – newe, a new thing.[3]
  • before 1382 – newes, new things (Wycliffe Bible).[3]
  • 1417 – tidings.[8]
  • 1560s – treated as singular.[2]
  • 1640 – the NEWS acronym joke.[2]
  • 1640s – verb, to report.[2]
  • 1670 – newspaper.[3]
  • 1871 – newsstand.[3]
  • 1923 – a news broadcast.[2]
  • 1926 – bad news, an unpleasant person.[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. Information about recent events, especially as reported in newspapers or on radio and television.
  2. A broadcast or report of such information.
  3. New information of any kind.
  4. Material worth reporting.

Word family

  • newsless
  • newslessness
  • newsagent
  • newsboy
  • newscast
  • newsgirl
  • newsgroup
  • newshawk
  • new
  • novel
  • tidings
  • newspaper
  • odds

Usage notes

The AHD and Etymonline both reject the story that news is formed from the initials of the four compass points.[9][2] The AHD groups news with advice, intelligence, tidings and word, all words for information about events not known before.[9]

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  5. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
  8. ^ a b c Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
  9. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
Cite this entry

“News.” Etymologically, 15 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/en/news. Accessed 15 Oct. 2026.

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