news

news (nz, nyz) pl.n.

[Middle English newes, new things, tidings pl. of newe, new thing, new. See new.]

newsʹless adjective

Synonyms: news, advice, intelligence, tidings, word. The central meaning shared by these nouns is "information about hitherto unknown events and happenings": just heard the good news; sent advice that the mortgage would be foreclosed; a source of intelligence about the negotiations; tidings of victory; received word of the senator's death.

Word History: If you take the first letters of the directions North, East, West, and South, it is true that you have the letters of the word news, but it is not true that you have the etymology of news, contrary to what has often been thought. The history of the word is much less clever than this and not at all unexpected. News is simply the plural of the noun new, which we use, for example, in the adage "Out with the old, in with the new." The first recorded user of this plural to mean "tidings" may have been James I of Scotland; a work possibly written by him around 1437 contains the words "Awak . . . I bring The [thee] newis [news] glad." It is pleasant to see that the first news was good. However, his descendant James I of England is the first person recorded (1616) to have said "No newis is better than evill newis," or as we would put it, "No news is good news."