The word “news” comes from “new.” It is not an acronym for “North-East-West-South,” or anything else, but a backronym (back acronym) went viral in May and June 2017.
 
“Hold up, it took my 20 years to figure out news stood for notable events, weather, and sports… my life is a lie” was posted on Twitter by Austin Beaton on May 6, 2017. “It took me until now to realize ‘news’ stood for notable events, weather and sports” was posted on Reddit—Shower Thoughts on May 8, 2017.
 
“It took me 19 years to figure out NEWS stands for ‘notable events, weather, and sports’” was posted on Twitter by Austin Steinmetz on June 5, 2017.
 
         
Twitter   
Austin Beaton
@Austin_Beaton
Hold up, it took my 20 years to figure out news stood for notable events, weather, and sports… my life is a lie
8:28 PM - 6 May 2017
   
Twitter
Hayat Hamoudah
@hayathamm
WAIT WAIT WAIT…. the word “NEWS” stands for “Notable Events Weather and Sports”???? why am i just learning this?? #shooketh
1:45 AM - 8 May 2017
 
Reddit—Shower Thoughts
It took me until now to realize ‘news’ stood for notable events, weather and sports.
submitted May 8, 2017 by fizzyax
 
Twitter
Austin Steinmetz
@asteinmetz_21
It took me 19 years to figure out NEWS stands for “notable events, weather, and sports” 🤔
6:59 PM - 5 Jun 2017
   
BuzzFeed
People Actually Think “News” Is An Acronym — It’s Not, But This Mess Is Pretty Hilarious
“I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to figure out that NEWS stands for Numerous Evidence We’re Stupid.”
Posted on June 8, 2017, at 5:24 p.m.
Tanya Chen
BuzzFeed News Reporter
On Monday, Twitter user @asteinmetz_21 popularized this complete myth that “news” is an acronym for “notable events, weather, and sports.” (It’s not. But his tweet went viral with nearly 28,000 retweets currently, and so here we are.)
   
Quora
Does ‘news’ stand for ‘notable events, weather, and sports’?
Tamara Vardo, PhD in linguistics
Answered Jun 8 2017 · Author has 405 answers and 324k answer views
No, of course not. It comes from the word “new” which is a very old (yes) word of English, related to such European words as French nouveau, Latin nova, and Russian novyj.
     
Metro (UK)
Why is News called News?
Imogen Groome Thursday 8 Jun 2017 1:33 pm
(...)
It all started in the 14th century, when the English word ‘news’ developed as a special use of the plural form of ‘new’. As the name implies, ‘news’ is associated with the presentation of new information.
(...)
Over the years, the meaning of the word news has been questioned, with Mitchell Orval incorrectly saying that ‘news’ was actually an acronym for Notable Events, Weather and Sports. Others have said it is an acronym for North, East, West, South – this is also untrue.
 
9 June 2017, Indian Express (Mumbai, India), “News Stalker: Some people think ‘NEWS’ is an acronym and we cannot help but facepalm”:
Apparently, some people thinking that “news” is an acronym for “notable events, weather, and sports” and they’re facing the worst of Twitter.
 
As kids, we would get to hear plenty of BS but then we grew up and developed a sense of what’s logical and what is not. At least, that’s what most people assume. Apparently, we’re not as sensible as one would think. Recently, Twitter user Austin Steinmetz (God help him) “figured out” that the word ‘news’ is an acronym and it has made us realise that Not Every Wight’s Smart.
 
Reddit—Shower Thoughts
NEWS’ is an acronym - Notable events, Weather, and Sports
submitted March 12, 2018 by yango_mango
COMMENTS
mrshouseofharrison
When I was in elementary school our teacher taught us that it was actually taken from a compass: North, East, West, South. I always loved that it was inclusive of all over the world.