_News_ must be singular, says MR. HICKSON; but _means_ "is beyond all dispute plural," for Shakspeare talks of "a mean:" with _news_, however, there is the slight difficulty of the absence of the noun _new_ to start from. Why is the absence of the singular an insuperable difficulty in the way of the formation of a plural noun from an adjective, any more than of plural nouns otherwise formed, which have no singulars, as _clothes_, _measles_, _alms_, &c. What says MR. HICKSON of these words? Are they all singular nouns and imported from other languages? for he admits no other irregularity in the formation of a language. 2. _Noise._--I agree with MR. HICKSON that the old derivations of _noise_ are unsatisfactory, but I continue to think his monstrous. I fear we cannot decide in your columns which of us has the right German pronunciation of _neues_; and I am sorry to find that you, Mr. Editor, are with MR. HICKSON in giving to the German _eu_ the exact sound of _oi_ in _noise_. I remain unconvinced, and shall continue to pronounce the _eu_ with less fullness than _oi_ in _noise_. However, this is a small matter, and I am quite content with MR. HICKSON to waive it. The derivation appears to me nonsensical, and I cannot but think would appear so to any one who was not bitten by a fancy. I do not profess, as I said before, to give the root of _noise_. But it is probably the same as of _noisome_, _annoy,_ the French _nuire_, Latin _nocere_, which brings us again to _noxa_; and the French word _noise_ has probably the same root, though its specific meaning is different from that of our word _noise_. Without venturing to assert it dogmatically, I should expect the now usual meaning of _noise_ to be its primary meaning, viz. "a loud sound" or "disturbance;" and this accords with my notion of its alliances. The French word _bruit_ has both the meanings of our word _noise_; and _to bruit_ and _to noise_ are with us interchangeable terms. The French _bruit_ also has the sense of _a disturbance_ more definitely than our word _noise_. "Il y a du bruit" means "There is a row." {139} I mention _bruit_ and its meanings merely as a parallel case to _noise_, if it be, as I think, that "a loud sound" is its primary, and "a rumour" its secondary meaning. I have no doubt there are many instances, and old ones, among our poets, and prose writers too, of the use of the noun _annoy_. I only remember at present Mr. Wordsworth's-- "There, at Blencatharn's rugged feet, Sir Lancelot gave a safe retreat To noble Clifford; from annoy Concealed the persecuted boy."