Etymology: In sense 1 < post-classical Latin novella new shoot of a plant (Vulgate), use as noun of feminine singular of classical Latin novellus novel adj. In senses 2 and 3, originally in plural < Middle French nouvelles news, information (c1050 in Old French as nuveles ; compare Anglo-Norman noveles ; also in singular, nuvele (beginning of the 12th cent.); French nouvelle ) and its etymon post-classical Latin novellae news (late 12th cent. in a British source; also novella , feminine singular, 13th cent. in a continental source), novella new things (mid 13th cent. in a British source), uses as noun of feminine and neuter plural respectively of novellus novel adj.; compare Italian novella , feminine (end of the 13th cent.). In sense 4, ultimately < Italian novella fictional prose narrative of variable length (end of the 13th cent.; mid 14th cent. in Boccaccio's Decameron denoting each of the short stories within the work); compare Middle French, French nouvelle (1414 in this sense, with reference to Boccaccio's Decameron), Portuguese novela (1375), Spanish novela (early 15th cent.), all from Italian. In sense 5 < post-classical Latin novella new constitution (6th cent.), use as noun (short for novella constitutio ) of feminine singular of classical Latin novellus novel adj.; usually in plural novellae; compare Middle French nouvelle (1585 in this sense).Association with the Latin technical term probably promotes the tendency in English (up to the 19th cent.) to use the spelling in novell in sense 5. The original stress was on the second syllable; the pronunciation noˈvel was retained in Scottish written use until the 19th cent., and Sc. National Dict. s.v. novelle n. records that it was still found in oral use in the early 20th cent. Compare the form novelle in quots. 1823 at sense 4b, 1830 for novel-book n. at Compounds 1a, a1835 at sense 3a, and also:a1796 R. Burns Poems & Songs (1968) I. 58 O leave novels, ye Mauchline belles. It is possible that the form novelle in quot. 1717 at sense 4a also reflects this older pronunciation.

Etymology: < Anglo-Norman and Middle French novel recent, new or unusual, young, fresh, newly made (12th cent. in Old French; French nouveau , (before a vowel) nouvel , (feminine) nouvelle ) and its etymon classical Latin novellus belonging to recent times, new, young, fresh, newly made, of a new kind < novus new adj. + -ellus -el suffix². Compare Old Occitan novel (a1150), Italian novello (a1250), Spanish novel (1252), Portuguese novel (end of the 13th cent.), Catalan (a1300). Compare earlier novel n., and later novile adj.Although attested from the late Middle English period, the word only really comes into common use from the 17th cent. onwards.