late 14c., "new things," plural of new (n.) "new thing" (see new (adj.)); after French nouvelles, which was used in Bible translations to render Medieval Latin nova (neuter plural) "news," literally "new things."

The odd and doubtful construction probably accounts for the absurd folk-etymology (attested by 1640 but originally, and in 18c. usually, in jest-books) that claims it to be an abbreviation of north east south west, as though "information from all quarters of the compass."

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago

Yeah, the N, E, W, S construction absolutely sounds like a bacronym.

To me, it was always a short form of newspaper, which was a distributed paper with the latest events. So I was probably not far off, just not as old as the actual etymology (I'm guessing "news" was a thing far before paper was a thing in the west).