Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

That might make for an interesting story! There're arguments about the origin: there's the mindset that says it's slang for "the new things", using "news" as a plural for new. Then there's the one that says "NEWS" is an anagram of "North East West South." It leads to some interesting arguments in media class, when it comes to defining "What is News?" (That's an argument that Hacker News seems to have as well, so it's far from dead.)


http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/faq/aboutwordorigins/...

"The original sense of news was 'new things'; this is long obsolete. Since the 15th century it has been used to mean 'tidings, the report of recent events, new occurrences as a subject or report or talk.'"




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: