Custom has limited in some
measure the use of these abridged titles to classes or collective
bodies, and the adjective takes the same form that the noun itself would
have had; but, in point of fact, it would be just as good English to say
"a heavy" as "the heavies" and they all become unintelligible when we
lose sight of the noun to which they belong. If A.E.B. should assert
that a glass of "cold without," _because_, by those accustomed to
indulge in such potations, it was understood to mean "brandy and _cold_
water, _without_ sugar," was really a draught from some "well of purest
English undefil'd," the confusion of ideas could not be more complete.
Indeed, I very much doubt whether our word "News" contains the idea of
"new" at all. It is used with us to mean intelligence and the phrases,
"Is there any thing new?" and "Is there any news?" present, in my
opinion, two totally distinct ideas to the English mind in its ordinary
mechanical action. "Intelligence" is not necessarily "new", nor indeed
is "News:" in the oldest dictionary I possess, Baret's _Alvearie_, 1573,
I find "Olde newes or stale newes." A.E.B. is very positive that "news"
is plural, and he cites the "Cardinal of York" to prove it. All that I
can say is, that I think the Cardinal of York was wrong: and A.E.
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