handouts to putterers will be enough to convince the American people that Everyman is a
humanist. 2002 Times 212 June 5 In potatoes as in currency, Gresham’s law applies: bad
drives out good. The new new, in potatoes, is old. moneyBAD news travels fastCf. 1539 R. TAVERNER tr. Erasmus’ Adages II. A4 Sad and heuy tydynges be easly
blowen abroade be they neuer so vaine and false and they be also sone beleued. In quots. 1592
and 1694 news is construed as a plural noun, as was usual at this period.
1592 KYD Spanish Tragedy i. B2V Euill newes flie faster still than good. 1694
Terence’s Comedies made English 46 Bad News always fly faster than good. 1792 T.
HOLCROFT Road to Ruin II. i. All these bills.. brought.. this morning. Ill news travels
fast. 1935 W. IRWIN Julius Caesar Murder Case xxv. ‘Where’d you get it [a knife]?’
‘On the Plains of Philippi.’ ‘Bad news travels fast,’ said Hercules. 1991 L. SANDERS
McNally’s Secret (1992) iv. 38 ‘I’ve already had a dozen phony sympathy calls—
including one from a cousin in Sarasota. Bad news certainly travels fast.’ 2002 Times 1
Feb. 22 Media processes are not forensic but sensational. Their light shines uncertainly. It
often distorts and can be unfair. ‘Ill news hath wings.’ misfortune; newsA BAD penny always turns upThe proverb, also used allusively in simile and metaphor (see quot. 1766), refers to the
predictable, and usually unwelcome, return of a disreputable or prodigal person after some
absence.
1766 A. ADAMS in L. H. Butterfield et al. Adams Family Correspondence (1963) I. 55
Like a bad penny it returnd, to me again. 1824 SCOTT Redgauntlet II. ii. Bring back Darsie?
little doubt of that—the bad shilling is sure enough to come back again. 1884 R. H. THORPE
Fenton Family iii. Just like as not he’ll be coming back one of these days, when he’s least
wanted. A bad penny is sure to return. 1922 JOYCE Ulysses 149 Who’s dead, when and what
did he die of? Turn up like a bad penny. 1941 A. UPDEGRAFF Hills look Down vi. ‘I miss
Bart.’ ‘Oh, a bad penny always turns up again.’ 1979 G. MITCHELL Mudflats of Dead iii.
‘Stop worrying. The bad pennies always turn up.’ ‘Oh, Adrian, I don’t think she’s a bad penny,
not really.’ wrong-doers
BAD things come in threes