gazetteer (gazeter)

[F. gazetier = Sp. gacetero Pg.gazeteiro, Thy very gazetteers themselves give o'er, Ev'n Ralph repents, and Henley writes no more. Steele. Pope , Dunciad, i. 215. was a man of ready talents; and, being an ardent partisan pamphleteer, was rewarded by Government with the place of Gazetteer. Shaw, Eng. Lit. (Back us's revision), xix. 21. A newspaper; a gazette. They have drawled through columns of gazetteers and advertisers for a century together. Burke, State of the Nation. 3. A geographical dictionary; an account of the divisions, places, seas, rivers, mountains, etc., of the world or of any part of it, under their names, in alphabetical order. [This use of the word is said to be due to the circumstance that the first work of the kind, by Laurence Echard (third edition 1695), bore the title "The Gazeteer's or Newsman's Interpreter" (afterward shortened to "The Gazetteer"), as being especially useful to newspaper writers.] A person or gazing-stock (gazing-st gazed at with wonder or curiosity, espe gazett, n . [= F. gazette = NGr. γαζέτα , gaza , treasure, wealth, γάζα , treasure, a sum of money; said to be of Pers. origin. Cf. cially of a scornful kind. gazette .] A small Venetian coin. See gaz- zetta. IMG:content-2166.jpg:[blocks in formation] Mas singer, Maid of Honour, iii. 1. Coryat , Crudities, II. 68 (ed. 1776). gazette (ga-zet'), n. [Formerly also gazet and gazetta ; F. gazette = Sp. gaceta = Pg. gazeta , gazzetta , a gazette, "a bill of news, or a short relation of the generall occurrences of the time, forged most commonly at Venice, and thence dispersed every month, into most parts of Christen dom" (Cotgrave) (first published about 1536), a particular use of either (1) It. gazzetta , a magpie (dim. of gazza , a magpie), taken as equiv. to 'chatterer' or 'tattler' (cf. E. Tatler , Chatterbox , Town Talk , and similar names of periodicals); or (2) It. gazzetta , a small coin (see gazet ); so called because this coin was paid either for the newspaper itself (the usual explanation) or for the privilege of reading it; cf. Picayune , as the name of a newspaper in New Orleans, named from picayипе , а small coin.] 1. A newspaper; a sheet of paper containing an account of current events and transactions: often used as the specific name of a newspaper. A gazet : this is almost a penny. The freight of the gazetti , ship-boys' tale; And, which is worst, even talk for ordinaries. B. Jonson, Volpone, v. 2. We sit as unconcerned as the pillars of a church, and hear the sermons as the A then i ans did a story, or as we read a gazett. Jer. Taylor, Works, II. 1. A fresh coin was a kind of a gazette , that published the latest news of the empire. Add is on , Ancient Medals, iii. 2. Specifically, one of the three official newspapers of Great Britain, published in London (semi-weekly, first established at Oxford in 1665), Edinburgh, and Dublin, containing, among other things, lists of appointments and Ye were made a gazing stock both by reproaches and afflictions. Heb. x. 33. Let the small remnant of my life be to me an inward and outward desolation, and to the world a gazing -stock of wretched misery. Sir P. Sidney, Arcadia, v.