'novel' originates from Latin, specifically the word 'novellus', where 'novellus' (from 'novus') meant 'new'.

'novel' changed from Old French 'novel' and Middle English 'novel' and eventually became the modern English word 'novel'.

Initially, it meant 'new' or 'newly made', but over time it evolved to refer to a 'new or original prose narrative'—the modern sense of a long fictional book.