- Author
- Newspaper, The West Australian
- Subjects
- History - general
- Tags
- None noted.
- RAN Ships
- None noted.
- Publication
- December 2005 edition of the Naval Historical Review (all rights reserved)
Al. During the days of explorers like Marco Polo and Ferdinand Magellan, trade merchants arriving at a foreign port would have the courtesy to inform departing vessels what the ocean’s conditions were like, as well as other relevant information gathered from their expeditions. As the ships navigated using the four cardinal points of the compass – north, east, west and south – this became the acronym for any important information from around the world. Thus if there were no reports of pirates, hurricanes or sea monsters, so came the age-old expression, “No news is good news”. (Jay Margo)
A.2 There is a popular misconception that news, because it reflects a worldwide coverage of events, is an acronym of the cardinal points of the compass – north, east, west and south. The word originally meant novelties and is derived from the old English equivalent for new, which in turn, was derived from Latin and Greek words. Many European languages share near equivalents of the same word. (Moira Martin)
(Gleaned from the features page of the West Australian newspaper. Ed)