"_Newes_ from any-whence, or, _Old Truth_ under a supposal of
_Noueltie_."
Chaucer uses for _the newe_ and of _the newe_ (sc. fashion)
elliptically. _Tiding_ or _Tidings_, from the A.-S. Tid-an, evidently
preceded _newes_ in the sense of inteligence, and may not _newes_
therefore be an elliptic form of _new-tidinges_? Or, as our ancestors
had _newelté_ and _neweltés_, can it have been a contraction of the
latter? If we are to suppose with Mr. Hickson that _news_ was "adopted
bodily into the language," we must not go to the High-German, from which
our early language has derived scarcely anything, but to the
Neder-Duytsch, from the frequent and constant communication with the Low
Countries in the sixteenth century. The following passages from Kilian's
_Thesaurus_, printed by Plantin, at Antwerp, in 1573, are to the
purpose, and may serve to show how the word was formed:--
"_Nieuwtijdinge_, oft _wat nieuws_, Nouvelles, Nuntius vel
Nuntium."
"_Seght ons wat nieuws_, Dicte nous quelquechose de nouveau,
Recita nobis aliquid novi."
"_Nieuwsgierich, nygierich_, Convoiteux de nouveautez, Cupidus
novitatis."
I trust these materials may be acceptable to your able correspondents,
and tend to the resolution of the question at issue.