Leeds, July 8. 1850.
_News, Noise_ (Vol. ii., p. 82.).--I think it will be found that MR.
HICKSON is misinformed as to the fact of the employment of the Norman
French word _noise_, in the French sense, in England.
_Noyse_, _noixe_, _noas_, or _noase_, (for I have met with each form),
meant then quarrel, dispute, or, as a school-boy would say, a row. It
was derived from _noxia_. Several authorities agree in these points. In
the _Histoire de Foulques Fitz-warin_, Fouque asks "Quei fust _la noyse_
qe fust devaunt le roi en la sale?" which with regard to the context can
only be fairly translated by "What is going on in {138} the King's
hall?" For his respondent recounts to him the history of a quarrel,
concerning which messengers had just arrived with a challenge.
Whether the Norman word _noas_ acquired in time a wider range of
signification, and became the English _news_, I cannot say but stranger
changes have occurred. Under our Norman kings _bacons_ signified dried
wood, and _hosebaunde_ a husbandman, then a term of contempt.