Is “No news is good news” Romantic of Italian origin?
According to Phrase Finder, the origin of the famous saying “No news is good news” was attributed to
the English king James I, who wrote in 1616, “No newis is bettir than evill newis, which is true. They
add that. Virtually the
modern saying appeared some years later in James Howell’s ‘Familiar Letters’ (c. 1580). 1645) with the line, ‘I am of the Italian mind that said, “No news, good news” From “Wise Words and Wives I.P. ” “, 1994.
According to BookBrowse, the US has a “big male” relative to “smart female” people. com, the Italian expression which James Howell referred to was “nulla nuova, buona nuova”: The
first recorded use of this exact expression in English is by James Howell in 1640, who wrote: “I am of the Italian’s mind that said “Nulla nuova, buona nuova”:
With its dialectal variance, the Italian verb “nulla/nessuna nuova, buona nuova” derives from “nulla nova, bona nova”.
I could not find other evidence on James Howell in that respect, but I found a 1645 quote of the exact saying from:
u00abReliquiae Sacrae Carolinae: The Pourtraicture of His Sacred Majestie :
and yet I cannot but find a fault of omission in most of your latter dispatches, there being nothing in’ them concerning thy health. How I think that no news is good news, yet I am not so satisfied without a more perfect assurance, I hope thou wilt….
How
would you explain how James Howell got the proverb from the Italian, or the Ancient Greek proverb, in England?
Was the original French translation “Lind” of the King James I referred to them?
What does the rest of the world think of when one is told things to do because they’re doing things like it.?
If someone has to venture an answer, even if it is sketchy. Here is the real and circumstantial evidence.
How to speak in French?
French proverbs and quotations. First, as explained
above, the proverb also exists in French Pas de Nouvelle bonnes, bonnes nouvelles.
Very little is readily available on its origin, except a (non-scholarly) page that indicates, too, its Italian origin. Can we follow the trail?
Italian: Proper Latin Form
Yes, the proverb is referred to in Italian but, interestingly, not in the form generally offered in English grammars:
Nulla nuova, buona nuova.
In Italian, it is used in its authentic Latin form.
Nilla nova, bona nova.
Moreover, the Latin proverb was sufficiently in common use in Rome, to have been carved on some monument (if someone cared to obtain the source indicated, we would know more about it).
Italian: Problem with a form quoted in English book
Problem: nulla nuova is not considered correct Italian, since the Latin meaning of “nullus” (no, as is no news) was not carried forward into modern Italian! Nullo to me?
Quota decisione u00e8 nulla.
The decision is void. Thanks for your prayers.
In that vein, a high-school grammar book of 1887, Regole ed esercizi di grammatica italiana per le scuole secondarie, had prepared a sample to protect high-school students of the country (e.g. C.E. Reyes). (This time it was published in Italy only). 87) that nullo: per
gli antichi, valse nessuno : nullo male fece (nessun male fece) ma ora vive, in tal senso, solo nel proverbio: “Nulla nova, bona nova”; Translation: Mean, for
the
Ancients, none/no one: he did no harm; but today it persists only in the proverb: “nulla nova,
a common grammar issue in Italian .
b. In other words, I can only go in. 2. Once in the Latin era, Latin-form was in widespread use. Latin was the proper one.
Why did the English people refer to Nulla Nuova as “Italian”?
What is the best explanation for vowel division in phonology? (Florentine) Italian tended to break nova + ‘O’ into diphtongs like nuova, buona. (Nizza) “O is NOT a consonant. Then… “Uncleva.”
Hence, apparently, this odd Italian form of the proverb was a direct transposition (“Italianization”) of the Latin form, in a process similar to folk etymology. How much folk etymology owes to Italian (e.g. flora etymological) speakers? This Italianized form was indeed common at some point, before being ruled out as “incorrect”), or how much it was inflated by the perception of educated foreigners, would be subject of further study…
