News Is Not an Acronym for the Compass Points
News is information about recent events. A popular story about its origin is wrong.
News is information about recent events. A widely repeated story claims it stands for North, East, West, South. It does not: the word is simply the plural of *new*, following French *nouvelles* and Latin *nova*, both meaning new things, and it is recorded long before anyone proposed the acronym. Grammatically *news* is singular — *the news is good* — one of a small set of English nouns that end in s but take a singular verb.
- Recent information. *The morning news.*
- A broadcast. *The evening news.*
- Newsworthy. *A newsworthy event.*
- Newspaper. *A newspaper.*
- French — *nouvelles*. *The parallel.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | news | The news. |
| Adjective | newsy | Newsy. |
| Compound | newspaper | A newspaper. |
| Compound | newsworthy | Newsworthy. |
| Latin | nova | New things. |
- The news is good.Singular verb.
- It is the plural of new.Etymology.
- She watched the news.Broadcast.
Nouns ending in s that take a singular verb
- News — the news is good
- Mathematics — mathematics is hard
- Measles — measles is contagious
- Billiards — billiards is played on a table
- Politics can go either way
Plural of *new*, on the model of Old French *nouvelles* and Latin *nova*, new things.
Does news stand for north, east, west, south?
No. It is simply the plural of new, and predates that story by centuries.
Is news singular or plural?
Singular. We say the news is good, even though the word ends in s.