NEWS.
A FEW OLD MATERIALS FOR ITS ELUCIDATION.
"Novaum, vulgo Nouvelle. Ugutio: 'Rumor, murmur, quod vulgo dicitur Novum.' Occurit non semel in Epistolis Marini Sanuti. 'Novis de Obitu Papæ auditis,' in Regesta Universitatis Paris, an. 1394, Spicileg. Acher., tom vi. p. 60."
So far Ducange, who also refers to the following:
"Supervenerunt nobis Nova certa de morte, videlicet quorundam Nobilium, nobis adhærentium, captorum per partem dieti Philippi in Britannia, et de speciali Præcepto suo Parisiis ignominiosæ morti traditorum; nec non de Strage, &c. &c."—Charta an. 1346, apud Rymer, t. v. p. 497.
The derivation of this word has been so strenuously and ably discussed by the contending 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: