The English word “news” developed in the 14th century as a special use of the plural form of “new”. In Middle English, the equivalent word was newes, like the French nouvelles and the German Neues. Similar developments are found in the Slavic languages – namely cognates from Serbo-Croatian novost (from nov, “new”), Czech and Slovak noviny (from nový, “new”), the Polish nowiny, the Bulgarian novini and Russian novosti – and likewise in the Celtic languages: the Welsh newyddion (from newydd) and the Cornish nowodhow (from nowydh).
