Origin of 'news'

[oligopoly]

My friend feels the origin of the word 'news' eg newspaper stems from North East West and South. Anyone know if this is true ?!

[ll_billym]

The original sense of news was 'new things'; this is long obsolete. Since the 15th century it has been used to mean 'tidings, the report of recent events, new occurrences as a subject or report or talk.'
The adjective new goes back to Old English.

 

Faithfully copied from:

http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/faq/aboutwordorig ins/news?view=uk

[oligopoly]

Cheers. I'l claim that pint off my mate then!

[ll_billym]

Oops, link doesn't work, you can get around the password by typing the following into google and hitting "i'm feeling lucky"

"origin word news"

Not particularly secure, surprising for a bunch of so called boffins.