what's new
- idiom
- Informal
- Hey, what's new? I haven't seen you in ages.
- know what's new
Examples
-
Officer Dennis said, "So what's new at school?" Officer Dennis seemed to want company.
Fiction book (1996) -
What's new, Buenos Aires?
-
Okay, look around and tell me what's new.
-
So, what's new on our case?
-
Well, what's new with you?
-
Over dinner, I ask, "What's new at work?"
Fiction book (1990) -
Catch a glimpse into our lives and find out what's new in our world ...
Blog text (20) -
Sign up to receive awesome marketing ideas and find out what's new with inbound marketing.
Blog text (26) -
"Maybe sometime you'll want to come to New York and check out what's new in some restaurants there." "Maybe so," I say.
Fiction book (2002) -
Well, what's new?
Synonyms
Asking for news or details about a person's situation informally
To ask how things are going, for example about work or a project
How Casual
- Informal
- Informal
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is a direct contraction of 'what is new' and its meaning ('the recent or newly added items/changes') follows transparently from 'what's' (what is) + 'new' (recent). As a common webpage or section title, this compositional interpretation is cross-linguistically familiar and readily accessible to a B1 learner who knows the constituents.
Etymology
What's new comes from people asking returning messengers or friends 'what's news'. They were literally asking what is new, so the phrase now means 'tell me about recent events'.