"No news is good news"

[votetastic]

What does the phrase "no news is good news" really mean?

I hear it all the time, and it seems to me you can look at it two different ways...


The "good" interpretation:

We haven't heard any news at all, so that must mean that everything is going okay.



The "bad" interpretation:

All of the news we've heard is bad news, and none of it is good news.

[jobycom]

1. Kind of both, I guess.

Tack it up to a different era, before cell phones or telegraphs. The only news you would be likely to get about a loved one traveling would be bad news, so if you didn't hear any news, that was good. Imagine a mother waiting to hear about her son gone off to war, or a wife about her husband, or whatever. They worry because they are out of contact, so people tell them, "Don't worry, if anything bad had happened, they'd tell you." So, not hearing anything was good.

Doesn't work with cell phones and the Internet, where you can speak to someone at just about any time anywhere.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

2. "...and if you never hear from me, that just means I'd rather not."

that is what "no news" means in this day and age.

[Left Brain]

3. Works better this way:

"No noose is good noose."