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Can anybody give me any suitable equivalents for the phrase 'Give glad tidings' as in the example ' Give glad tidings to those who strive - they always get the best results.'

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It's not valid English in the first place to Give glad tidings as per OP's example. As Loquacity points out, glad tidings simply means exactly good news. Substituting that in the example gets rid of the irrelevant connotations of "standard festive season well-wishing", and makes it plain that the sentence is badly-formed. – FumbleFingers May 8 '11 at 22:05
@FumbleFingers Are you sure? – tchrist Aug 19 '12 at 3:21

4 Answers

up vote 3 down vote

Tidings means news, or information. Glad tidings is happy news.

I'm not sure I'd use the phrase glad tidings in your example at all, to be honest. I wouldn't be giving good news to people who strive, but some kind of reward or praise.

So, for equivalents to give glad tidings I would offer:

Send good (or happy) news

For an equivalent to give glad tidings as it was used in your example I would offer:

Give praise

Or, the ever popular:

Offer large sums of cash
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You could just have Praise. Or Blessed are, Hail to, etc., come to that. But they all have have somewhat quaint (not to say biblical) associations. Extol, perhaps - but even that's a bit olde-worlde. On the other hand, All power to sounds a bit too informal or slogan-like for me. I really can't think of a non-quirky single word alternative for modern usage (apart from loadsamoney & variants thereof :-) – FumbleFingers May 8 '11 at 22:18
@FumbleFingers What about 'compliment'? Although, that might mean more "say nice things about their hair or clothes" I guess. Maybe 'look after'? – Loquacity May 9 '11 at 4:37
I kinda think that semantically admire hits the spot, but somehow it just doesn't sound right all on its own. You should admire is a bit better, maybe. Or Respect? I dunno. – FumbleFingers May 9 '11 at 5:22
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try kudos

Acclaim or praise for exceptional achievement.

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Glad tidings would be used to wish someone a happy birthday or something of this nature.

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True - but the questioner is asking for alternatives to this. – Steve Melnikoff May 8 '11 at 19:06
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An interesting way to get synonyms for that expression is to look for it in a book known to have many translations (here, the Bible) and then to work your way through said translations. Here, Isaiah 52:7 has (New International Version):

How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news,
who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings,
who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, “Your God reigns!”

Other version include “bring good news of happiness”, “break the news that all's well”, “bring good news”, “bring good tidings of good” (King James; sounds weird), and “bring glad tidings of good things” (New King James).

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Can't deny that's a good summary of exactly what Give glad tidings actually means, but I can't help thinking OP has used it inappropiately in the first place. So we should give alternatives to his intended meaning, rather than literal interpretations of the erroneous original word-choice. – FumbleFingers May 9 '11 at 14:51

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