A.Word.A.Day --tidings

A.Word.A.Day

About | Media | Search | Contact

Home

Today's Word

tidings

PRONUNCIATION:

(TY-dingz)

MEANING:

noun: News.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Old English tidung (announcement, piece of news), from tidan (to happen). Earliest documented use: before 450.

NOTES:

Once upon a time, before breaking news broke our spirits, people brought tidings. Good ones, usually. As in glad tidings of great joy. The word tidings carries the jingle of bells and the rustle of parchment. It hails from an age when messages arrived by messenger, not by push alerts and pop-ups. So if you ever get an email with the subject line “Good tidings from your bank” don’t believe it.

USAGE:

“Stock indexes opened in positive territory Wednesday, as investors awaited the latest tidings from the Federal Reserve.”
Daniel de Visé; Fed Leaves Interest Rates Unchanged; USA Today (Arlington, Virginia); Mar 19, 2025.

See more usage examples of tidings in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

No one in this world, so far as I know -- and I have researched the records for years, and employed agents to help me -- has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby. -H.L. Mencken, writer, editor, and critic (12 Sep 1880-1956)

We need your help

Help us continue to spread the magic of words to readers everywhere

Donate

Subscriber Services
Awards | Stats | Links | Privacy Policy
Contribute | Advertise