BTW, check merriam-webster’s bluesky. Its really good.

Transcript

A tweet saying “It took me 19 years to figure out NEWS stands for “notable events, weather and sports” 🤔”. It has a reply from Merriam-Webster saying “No.”

  • toy_boat_toy_boat@lemmy.worldEnglish
    411·
    1 day ago

    come on, y’all. it clearly stands for North, East, West, South!

    i love folk etymology.

    “News” is actually the “new things”. The plural of “new”.

      • toy_boat_toy_boat@lemmy.worldEnglish
        10·
        1 day ago

        if you want to coin that term, i’ll support it

        edit - but until now, the “olds” has always been the name we gave my grandpa’s old eight-eight

    • argh_another_username@lemmy.ca
      6·
      1 day ago

      Why stop there?

      new(adj.)

      Middle English neue, from Old English neowe, niowe, earlier niwe “made or established for the first time, fresh, recently made or grown; novel, unheard-of, different from the old; untried, inexperienced, unused,” from Proto-Germanic *neuja-(source also of Old Saxon niuwi, Old Frisian nie, Middle Dutch nieuwe, Dutch nieuw, Old High German niuwl, German neu, Danish and Swedish ny, Gothic niujis “new”).

      • toy_boat_toy_boat@lemmy.worldEnglish
        5·
        1 day ago

        proto-germanic is fascinating. it’s a whole “conceptual language” made entirely out of assumptions, and i love it.

        i assume you’re aware of RobWords on youtube? he also does another show called Words Unraveled. if you’re a word nerd like me, i’m sure you’d love boþ.

        edit: #HARDCORE Þ