Meanings
plural tidings · alternative dialectal tidind · alternative obsolete tidinde
- archaicliteraryplural normallyNews; new information.
Glad tidings we bring / To you and your kin.
19th century, “We Wish You a Merry Christmas”5 more examples
For men be now tratlers and tellers of tales; What tidings at Totnam, what newis in Wales, What ſhippis are ſailing to Scalis Malis? And all is not worth a couple of nut ſhalis.
c. 1515–1516, John Skelton, Against Venemous Tongues […]; republished in John Scattergood, editor, John Skelton: The Complete English Poems, 1983, →OCLC[…] Adoniiah sayde vnto him, Come in, for thou art a valiant man, and bringest good tidings.
1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Kings 1:42Day after day passed away without bringing any other tidings of him than the report which shortly prevailed in Meryton of his coming no more to Netherfield the whole winter; […].
1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], chapter XXIII, in Pride and Prejudice: […], volume I, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 302But yet it is pity we had lost tidings of our souls: actually we shall have to go in quest of them again, or worse in all ways will befall!
1843 April, Thomas Carlyle, “Ch. 2, St. Edmundsbury”, in Past and Present, American edition, Boston, Mass.: Charles C[offin] Little and James Brown, published 1843, →OCLC, book II (The Ancient Monk)In the same year as the Furness objection, sadder tidings befell St Pancras Priory at Lewes, in East Sussex. Despite it having the distinction of being the earliest Cluniac monastery in Great Britain, petitions to prevent the Brighton Lewes & Hastings Railway from imposing on its site with its Lewes line failed. The line was approved and, as if as an act of deliberate desecration and assertion of the railways' power, passed over the site of the high altar.
2022 January 12, Dr. Joseph Brennan, “Castles: ruined and redeemed by rail”, in RAIL, number 948, page 57
Origin
- Proto-West Germanic*tīdungō
- Old Norsetíðindi“news, tidings”
- Old Englishtīdung
- Middle Englishtiding
- Englishtiding
From a merger of Middle English tiding, tidinge, from Late Old English tīdung, with Middle English tidinde, tidende, from or influenced by Old Norse tíðindi (“news, tidings”), both connected to Old English tīdan (“to befall; happen”). Though it is sometimes assumed that the form in -ind/-end is original and later assimilated to -ing, the cognates Dutch tijding and German Zeitung point to inheritance from Proto-West Germanic *tīdungō. By surface analysis, tide (“time”) + -ing.
More words from Middle English, Old English, Old Norse
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Chinese Mandarin 消息
- 消息 (xiāoxi)news, new information
Dutch kond
- kondnews, new information
Finnish uutinen
- uutinennews, new information
French nouvelle
- nouvellenews, new information
German Kunde, Zeitung
- Kundenews, new information
- Zeitungnews, new information
Hungarian hír
- hírnews, new information
Icelandic tíðindi, fréttir
- tíðindinews, new information
- fréttirnews, new information
Italian notizie, novità
- notizienews, new information
- novitànews, new information
Polish wieści
- wieścinews, new information
Portuguese notícias, novas
- notíciasnews, new information
- novasnews, new information
Russian ве́сти
- ве́сти (vésti)news, new information
Spanish noticia, nueva
- noticianews, new information
- nuevanews, new information
- novedadnews, new information
Swedish nyheter, budskap
- nyheternews, new information
- budskapnews, new information
- tidendernews, new information
Turkish haber
- habernews, new information
Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
tiding. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tiding
“tiding.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tiding. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “tiding,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tiding.
Source: tiding on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.