tidings: [OE] Tidings is etymologically ‘that which happens’. It is closely related to English tide, in the sense ‘happen’ (as in betide). It was adapted from Old Norse títhendi ‘happenings, events, news’, a derivative of the adjective títhr ‘happening’. A similar semantic development from ‘events’ to ‘news of events’ lies behind the related German zeitung ‘newspaper’. [tidings etymology, tidings origin, 英语词源]