Family obligations look to be dealt with, and I'm looking forward to regular posting again, starting with this homage to recent travels:
gazetteer (gaz-i-TEER) - n., a geographical dictionary or index; (obs.) a journalist, someone who writes for a gazette.
The sense of someone who writes for a gazette, or official government journal, dates to 1611. I only include this sense because it ties into the modern one: in 1693, Laurence Echard published a geographical index titled The gazetteer's: or newsman's interpreter, which when he published Part II in 1704 he was calling just The Gazetteer. As for gazette itself, it dates to 1605, from French gazette, from Italian gazzetta, from Venetian gazeta, from gazeta dele novità, lit. "a gazeta (halfpenny) of news", named for the cost (one gazeta) of the newspaper. The origin of the coin name is disputed, but seems likely to ultimately derive from Ancient Greek khalkós, copper/copper alloy.
---L.
gazetteer (gaz-i-TEER) - n., a geographical dictionary or index; (obs.) a journalist, someone who writes for a gazette.
The sense of someone who writes for a gazette, or official government journal, dates to 1611. I only include this sense because it ties into the modern one: in 1693, Laurence Echard published a geographical index titled The gazetteer's: or newsman's interpreter, which when he published Part II in 1704 he was calling just The Gazetteer. As for gazette itself, it dates to 1605, from French gazette, from Italian gazzetta, from Venetian gazeta, from gazeta dele novità, lit. "a gazeta (halfpenny) of news", named for the cost (one gazeta) of the newspaper. The origin of the coin name is disputed, but seems likely to ultimately derive from Ancient Greek khalkós, copper/copper alloy.
---L.