gazetteer

Meanings

1. A person who writes for a gazette or newspaper; a journalist; (specifically) a journalist engaged by a government.
2. A gazette, a newspaper.

1. Synonym of gazette (“to announce the status of (someone) in an official gazette”).
2. To report about (someone) in a gazette or newspaper.

1. A dictionary or index of geographical locations.
2. A similar descriptive list (often alphabetical) of information on other subjects.

1. To describe the geography of (a country or other place) in a gazetteer (etymology 2, noun etymology 2, noun sense 1).

Etymology

The noun is borrowed from French gazettier (archaic), gazetier (“journalist, newspaperman”) + English -eer (suffix forming agent nouns denoting people associated with or engaged in a specified activities). Gazettier, gazetier are derived from gazette (“newspaper”) + -ier (suffix denoting a profession); and gazette from Italian gazzetta, from Venetan gazeta, from gazeta dele novità (literally “a gazeta of news”) (referring to the cost of the newspaper, a gazeta being a Venetian coin of little value, whence English gazet (obsolete)), possibly a diminutive of Latin gaza (“riches, treasure; treasury”), ultimately from Old Median *ganǰam (“treasure; wealth”). The English word is analysable as gazette + -eer. The verb is derived from the noun.