# News

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/news/108850>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 13, 2002, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/news/108850 "2002-05-13T17:43:13Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\
**Post date:** [May 13, 2002, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/news/108850/1 "2002-05-13T17:43:13Z")

</div>

Someone, who I consider to be quite knowledgable, once told me that the word ‘News’ is actually an abreviation of National Emergency Warning System, and was invented during a world war

Then someone else, who I consider to be ten times as knowledgable as the other person, on hearing what the first person said, told me that he had no idea of this fact and that the word ‘news’ was a lot older than any of the world wars.  
So , who is correct? what is the origin of the word ‘news’?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\
**Post date:** [May 13, 2002, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/news/108850/2 "2002-05-13T17:49:17Z")

</div>

OFCS, the word _news_ has been used to mean “report of recent events” since the 15th century. It comes from Old English _niwe_ (or Latin _novus_, or Greek _neos_), meaning “new.”

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\
**Post date:** [May 13, 2002, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/news/108850/3 "2002-05-13T17:52:25Z")

</div>

Furthermore, there was no such thing as the “National Early Warning System” during WWII.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![kniz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@kniz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kniz)\
**Post date:** [May 13, 2002, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/news/108850/4 "2002-05-13T18:03:02Z")

</div>

I thought it was an acronym for:  
[ul][li] **N** orth[/li][li] **E** ast[/li][li] **W** est[/li] **S** outh :p[/ul]

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\
**Post date:** [May 13, 2002, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/news/108850/5 "2002-05-13T19:01:54Z")

</div>

> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Nametag \*  
> \*\*Furthermore, there was no such thing as the “National Early Warning System” during WWII. \*\*

I didn’t say Early I said Emergency. But I get your meaning.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\
**Post date:** [May 13, 2002, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/news/108850/6 "2002-05-13T19:14:20Z")

</div>

According to Mr. Webster, the first cite of it was in the mid-1400s. It was a middle-English word derived from “newis,” meaning a novelty.