_Etymology of "News_."--The word "news" is not derived, as many
suppose, from the adjective new, but from a practice that obtained
in newspapers of an early date, of prefixing to the title the letters
expressive of the cardinal points, thus:--
N.
E. W.
S.
meaning that their intelligence was derived from all quarters of the
globe. This must, at any rate, be allowed as ingenious etymology.