“新闻”作为一个非词语的语言结构最早出现在西晋，后来进一步演变成一个动词性的短语结构，表示新近听闻之义。最晚在唐代，“新闻”从一个动词短语演变成一个名词短语，表示新近听闻的事情。宋代以后，“新闻”基本凝固成一个名词。进入19世纪以后，随着西方传教士来华，西方人用汉语固有的“新闻”来翻译具有西方新闻概念的news一词，使得“新闻”在固有词义的基础上初步发展出具有现代新闻内涵的新义。这一词语后来传入日本，被日语词所借用。随着中日词语的交流，“新闻”的这一新义便逐渐被人们所接受，成为了一个表示“报社、电台等媒体报道的消息”的现代专业名词。

The Chinese word “news” as a non-verbal word originated from Western Jin Dynasty. Then it became a verbal phrase with the meaning of hearing something recently. The verbal phrase “News” developed into a noun phrase which means news recently heard in Tang Dynasty. In Song Dynasty, the word “News” developed into a noun. After the 19th century, Western missionaries in China began to use “News” to explain the meaning of journalism and reports. Then the word “News” was introduced into Japan and adopted by Japanese language. As the language communication expands between China and Japan, “News” was finally adopted as a term for the information reported by the newspapers and broadcasts.