Notes and Queries, Number 42, August 17, 1850 | Page 5

parties in your pages, that I have no intention of
interfering (non nostrum tantas componere lites) further than to furnish
a few materials bearing on the subject, which may not have come under
their notice.
It seems uncertain whether Newes was considered by our ancestors
plural or singular. Resolute John Florio is sadly inconsistent in his use
of it: in his _World of Wordes_, ed. 1598, we have:
"_Nova_, newe, fresh, a noueltie, a newe report.
"_Novella_, a tale, a nouell, a noueltie, a discourse, a newes a
message."
In Queen Anna's _World of Wordes_, 1611:
"_Nova_, a noueltie, a new report.
"_Novella, a tiding, or newes_.
"_Novellante_, a teller of newes or tidings."
Here we have newes treated both as singular and _plural_! while we
have tiding as the singular of _tidings_, a form which, from long disuse,
would now appear strange to us. In the following extract from Florio's
very amusing book of Dialogues, _Second Frutes_, 1591, he makes
newes decidedly plural:--
"C. What doo they say abroade? what newes have you, Master Tiberio?
T. Nothing that I know; can you tell whether the post be come? C. No,
Sir; they saye in the Exchange that the great Turke makes great
preparation to warre with the Persian. T. 'Tis but a deuice; these be
newes cast abroade to feede the common sorte, I doo not beleeue
them.... C. Yea, but they are written to verie worshipful merchants. T.
By so much the lesse doo I beleeue them; doo not you know that euerie
yeare such newes are spreade abroade? C. I am almost of your minde,
for I seldome see these written reports prove true. T. Prognostications,
_newes_, deuices, and letters from forraine countries (good Master
Cæsar), are but used as confections to feed the common people withal.
C. A man must give no more credite to Exchange and Powles' newes
than to fugitiues promises and plaiers fables."
In Thomas's _Principal Rules of the Italian Grammer, with a
Dictionarie_, printed by Thomas Powell in 1562, but written in 1548,
we have--
"_Novella_, a tale, a parable, or a _neweltee._

"_Novelluzza_, an ynkelyng.
"_Novellare_, to tell tales or newes."
In the title page of a rare little volume printed in 1616, we have the
adjective new in apposition with the substantive _newes_, thus:
"Sir Thomas Overburie his Wife, with new Elegies upon his (now
knowne) untimely death. Whereunto are annexed New Newes and
Characters written by himselfe and other learned Gentlemen. Editio
septima. London: printed by Edward Griffin for Lawrence Lisle, 1616,
12mo."
The head of one section is-- {181}
"Newes from any-whence, or, Old Truth under a supposal of Noueltie."
Chaucer uses for the newe and of the newe (sc. fashion) elliptically.
Tiding or _Tidings_, from the A.-S. Tid-an, evidently preceded newes
in the sense of inteligence, and may not newes therefore be an elliptic
form of _new-tidinges_? Or, as our ancestors had _newelté_ and
_neweltés_, can it have been a contraction of the latter? If we are to
suppose with Mr. Hickson that news was "adopted bodily into the
language," we must not go to the High-German, from which our early
language has derived scarcely anything, but to the Neder-Duytsch, from
the frequent and constant communication with the Low Countries in the
sixteenth century. The following passages from Kilian's _Thesaurus_,
printed by Plantin, at Antwerp, in 1573, are to the purpose, and may
serve to show how the word was formed:--
"_Nieuwtijdinge_, oft _wat nieuws_, Nouvelles, Nuntius vel Nuntium."
"_Seght ons wat nieuws_, Dicte nous quelquechose de nouveau, Recita
nobis aliquid novi."
"_Nieuwsgierich, nygierich_, Convoiteux de nouveautez, Cupidus
novitatis."
I trust these materials may be acceptable to your able correspondents,
and tend to the resolution of the question at issue.
S.W. SINGER.
Mickleham, August 6. 1850.
"_News_," Origin of the Word (Vol. i., pp. 270. 369. 487.; vol. ii., pp.
23. 81. 106.).--Your correspondents who have written upon this subject
may now have seen the following note in Zimperley's _Encyclopædia_,
p. 472.:--
"The original orthography was _newes_, and in the singular. Johnson

has, however, decided that the word newes is a substantive without a
singular, unless it be considered as singular. The word _new_,
according to Wachter, is of very ancient use, and is common to many
nations. The Britons, and the Anglo-Saxons, had the word, though not
the thing. It was first printed by Caxton in the modern sense, in the
_Siege of Rhodes_, which was translated by John Kay, the Poet
Laureate, and printed by Caxton about the year 1490. In the _Assembly
of Foulis_, which was printed by William Copland in 1530, there is the
following exclamation:--
"'Newes! newes! newes! have ye ony newes?'
"In the translation of the _Utopia_, by Raphe Robinson, citizien and
goldsmythe, which was imprinted by Abraham Nele in 1551, we are