- gazette
- "newspaper," 1605, from Fr. gazette, from It. gazzetta, Venetian dial. gazeta "newspaper," originally the name of a small copper coin, lit. "little magpie," from gazza; applied to the monthly newspaper published in Venice by the government mid-1500s, either from its price or its association with the bird (typical of false chatter), or both. First used in Eng. 1665 for the paper issued at Oxford, whither the court had fled from the plague. Gazetteer "geographical dictionary" is from Laurence Eachard's 1693 geographical handbook for journalists, "The Gazetteer's, or Newsman's, Interpreter," second edition simply titled "The Gazetteer."