tiding

English

Alternative forms

  • tidind (dialectal)
  • tidinde (obsolete)

Etymology

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”),[1] 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,[2] the cognates Dutch tijding and German Zeitung point to inheritance from Proto-West Germanic *tīdungō. By surface analysis, tide (“time”) +‎ -ing.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈtaɪdɪŋ/
  • Audio (Southern England):(file)

Noun

tiding (plural tidings)

  1. (archaic or literary, usually in the plural) News; new information.
    • c. 1515–1516, John Skelton, Against Venemous Tongues […]; republished in John Scattergood, editor, John Skelton: The Complete English Poems, 1983, →OCLC:
      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.
    • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Kings 1:42:
      […] Adoniiah sayde vnto him, Come in, for thou art a valiant man, and bringest good tidings.
    • 1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], chapter XXIII, in Pride and Prejudice: […], volume I, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 302:
      Day 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; […] .
    • 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):
      But 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!
    • 19th century, “We Wish You a Merry Christmas”:
      Glad tidings we bring / To you and your kin.
    • 2022 January 12, Dr. Joseph Brennan, “Castles: ruined and redeemed by rail”, in RAIL, number 948, page 57:
      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.
    • 2026 January 10, Ross Douthat, “The ICE Shooting Displays the Need for Equilibrium. But How?”, in The New York Times‎[1], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC:
      (I am indebted to the prolific substacker Noah Smith for this list of happy tidings.)
      (Can we archive this URL?)

Translations

Verb

tiding

  1. present participle and gerund of tide

References

  1. ^ “tidings”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
  2. ^ T.F. Hoad, Concise Dictionary of English Etymology, →ISBN, s.v. tidings

Anagrams

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