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new (adj.): Middle English neue, from Old English neowe, niowe, earlier niwe “made or established for the first time, fresh, recently made or grown; novel, unheard-of, different from the old; untried, inexperienced, unused,” from Proto-Germanic *neuja– (source also of Old Saxon niuwi, Old Frisian nie, Middle Dutch nieuwe, Dutch nieuw, Old High German niuwl, German neu, Danish and Swedish ny, Gothic niujis “new”).
This is from PIE *newo– “new” (source also of Sanskrit navah, Persian nau, Hittite newash, Greek neos, Lithuanian naujas, Old Church Slavonic novu, Russian novyi, Latin novus, Old Irish nue, Welsh newydd “new”).
From mid-14 C. as “novel, modern” (Gower, 1393, has go the new foot “dance the latest style”). In the names of cities and countries named for some other place, c. 1500. Meaning “not habituated, unfamiliar, unaccustomed,” 1590s. Of the moon from late Old English. The adverb, “newly, for the first time,” is Old English niwe, from the adjective. As a noun, “that which is new,” also in Old English. There was a verb form in Old English (niwian, neowian) and Middle English (neuen) “make, invent, create; bring forth, produce, bear fruit; begin or resume (an activity); resupply; substitute,” but it seems to have fallen from use.
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news (n.): late 14th C., “new things,” plural of new (n.) “new thing” (see new (adj.)); after French nouvelles, which was used in Bible translations to render Medieval Latin nova (neuter plural) “news,” literally “new things.”
The English word was construed as singular at least from the 1560s, but it sometimes still was regarded as plural 17th C.-19th C. The odd and doubtful construction probably accounts for the absurd folk-etymology (attested by 1640 but originally, and in 18c. usually, in jest-books) that claims it to be an abbreviation of north east south west, as though “information from all quarters of the compass.”
The meaning “tidings, intelligence of something that has lately taken place” is from early 15th C. The meaning “radio or television program presenting current events” is from 1923. Bad news in the extended sense of “unpleasant person or situation” is from 1926. Expression no news, good news can be traced to 1640s. Expression news to me “something I did not know” is from 1889.
News-agent “person who deals in newspapers” is from 1817. News-hound “reporter” is by 1908. The newspaper office news desk is by 1840. News-monger “one who employs much time in hearing and telling news” is from 1590s. The News in the Virginia city Newport News is said to derive from the name of one of its founders, William Newce.
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brand-new (adj.): “quite new,” 1560s, from brand (n.) + new. The notion is “new as a glowing metal fresh from the forge” (Shakespeare has fire-new; Middle English had span-neue “brand new,” c. 1300, from Old Norse span-nyr, from span “chip of wood,” perhaps as something likely to be new-made). Popularly bran-new.
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fresh (adj.1): c. 1200, fresh, also fersh, “unsalted; pure; sweet; eager;” the modern form is a metathesis of Old English fersc, of water, “not salt, unsalted,” itself transposed from Proto-Germanic *friskaz (source also of Old Frisian fersk, Middle Dutch versch, Dutch vers, Old High German frisc, German frisch “fresh”). Probably cognate with Old Church Slavonic presinu “fresh,” Lithuanian preskas “sweet.”
Sense of “new, recent” is from c. 1300; that of “not stale or worn” is from early 14th C.; of memories from mid-14th C. The metathesis, and the expanded Middle English senses of “new,” “pure,” “eager” probably are by influence of (or from) Old French fres (fem. fresche; Modern French frais “fresh, cool”), which is from Proto-Germanic *frisko-, and thus related to the English word. The Germanic root also is the source of Italian and Spanish fresco. Related: Freshly. Fresh pursuit in law is pursuit of the wrong-doer while the crime is fresh.
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fresh (adj.2): “impudent, presumptuous,” or as Century Dictionary puts it, “verdant and conceited,” 1848, U.S. slang, probably from German frech “insolent, cheeky,” from Old High German freh “covetous,” related to Old English frec “greedy, bold”
I don’t have a review for this month, as I stress-quilted two quilts for Christmas (plus baking and all the other crafts). So have this bird pic as recompense!
Missing the mark
When we moved to Tularosa, NM, we found a couple of restaurants that were – and are – amazing. One of them has what are basically tempura avocados, and they are frankly fantastic. The chef has a deft touch, and the batter is light and crispy while the avocados are soft but firm enough, and we are compelled order them whenever we’re there.
But once in a while, as is true with everything, once in a while they don’t quite measure up. The tempura batter is thick and stodgy, the avocados have, as avocados will do, gone from firm to mushy in an instant. Mind you, these are still very good, but not the best.
So yeah, you know what I’m about to say about Craig Johnson’s latest “Longmire” novel. To change metaphors, everyone swings and misses at some point. He did not. Craig connected with the ball, but it didn’t go where he intended it to, I don’t think.
The Longmire Defense has Walt looking into a murder from 1948, one that it looks increasingly like his grandfather committed. Everyone who knew Lloyd Longmire knew he was capable of killing someone. Hell, he did it in the middle of the bank one day. And Walt’s relationship with Lloyd was touchy at the best of times, and there weren’t many of those.
I don’t have a problem with Walt being off-balance and out of sorts on this one. Actually, it’s one of the things I liked best about it. Walt Longmire is always human, and this time we get to see him at one of his less than stellar moments, and I love that.
But. But somehow it felt kind of remote, almost like I was watching a badly taped video of a good movie. The connections didn’t feel solid, and some of the incidents seemed almost forced. The ending was, in my opinion, really rushed, as if Craig had run out of time. Even the title feels strained.
Make no mistake, you need to read this book. Craig Johnson is still a master storyteller, and there are things that happen in The Longmire Defense which are going to have massive repercussions down the line. It’s a good story. Not perhaps the best one in the series, but still captivating, and some of the new characters are huge fun.
There’s been a view in the JFK assassination research area for a few years that the only progress that can really be made in learning what happened will come from sifting through the minutiae of government records. I believe this was first urged by British researcher Malcolm Blunt – have the patience to read the records, uncover obscure info, and insert the pieces into the existing puzzle.
This is the tack that filmmaker Mary Haverstick takes to excavate the background of A Woman I Know. What began as research the life of a woman who was amongst the Mercury 13 for a documentary launched her instead on a trip through the Cold War weeds of the CIA.
The fascination of her work is that she tracks down and compares the lives of this woman and other names through files, memos, receipts, even signatures on those papers to show how the CIA ran some agents as multiple people simultaneously, over years and different continents, that not only hid identities decades ago but perhaps still. One facet of this may answer why so many documents are still withheld to this day – some agents became entirely new people and their new and old identities are tangled up with history that remains ‘sensitive’.
Where she falls down is in describing the assassination itself. I can buy her claim to know the identity of the Babuska Lady but don’t agree with her ideas as to her actions. She also doesn’t mention the earlier Chicago and Tampa plots.
As James Angleton said, it is a wilderness of mirrors that Haverstack spent over a decade carefully navigating. Her work on this is terrifically important as it can easily be a pattern on which further research can be built.
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