gazetteer
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˌɡæzəˈtɪə/
ipa: /ˌɡæzəˈtɪəɹ/
rhymes: -ɪə(ɹ)
Forms: form: gazetteers
Etymology: The noun is derived from The Gazetteer’s, or Newsman’s Interpreter (1st edition, 1692), the name of a geographical index compiled by the English clergyman and historian Laurence Echard (c. 1670 – 1730); in the preface he said “The Title was given me by a very eminent Person, whom I forbear to name.” The preface also stated that the work was “partly design’d for all such as frequent Coffee-Houses, and other places for News”, that is, to help readers better understand the newspapers written by gazetteers or journalists (see etymology 1).
The verb is derived from the noun.
Senses: examples: text: The kind Reception the Gazetteer has met vvith in the VVorld, manifeſted by the ſeveral Editions that have been of it, vvithin the compaſs of a fevv Years; and indeed, the Conveniency of a Compendious Undertaking of this kind, have induced us to go on vvith a ſecond Part, comprehending the other three Quarters of the VVorld, viz. Aſia, Africa and America; ſince the firſt had confin'd it ſelf entirely vvithin the Boundaries of Europe.
ref: 1704, [Laurence Echard, compiler], “The Preface”, in The Gazetteer’s or Newsman’s Interpreter. The Second Part. Being a Geographical Index of All the Empires, Kingdoms, Islands, Provinces, Peninsula’s: As also, of the Cities, Patriarchships, Bishopricks, Universities, Forts, Castles, &c. in Asia, Africa and America. […], London: […] Thomas Newborough […], and George Sawbridge […], →OCLC, signature A2:
text: The "Polyolbion" [by Michael Drayton] is nothing less than a versified gazetteer of England and Wales,—fortunately Scotland was not yet annexed, or the poem would have been even longer, and already it is the plesiosaurus of verse. Mountains, rivers, and even marshes are personified, to narrate historical episodes, or to give us geographical lectures.
ref: 1876, James Russell Lowell, “Spenser”, in Among My Books. Second Series., Boston, Mass.: James R[ipley] Osgood and Company, late Ticknor & Fields, and Fields, Osgood, & Co., →OCLC, page 137:
text: This is the first volume of a gazetteer which is now being published. It may be looked upon as the very latest authority.
ref: 1890 February, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “The Baker Street Irregulars”, in The Sign of Four (Standard Library), London: Spencer Blackett […], →OCLC, page 157:
text: According to a gazetteer of 1662 called Edo meisho ki, the Ōji Inari Shrine was the "big boss" (sō-tsukasa) of all the Inari shrines around Tokyo. […] Other gazetteers of the period preserve a story holding that on the last day of the year, innumerable foxes would gather at a certain mulberry tree to worship at the shrine, making foxfire, which could be seen from Edo.
ref: 2017, Helen Hardacre, “Edo-period Shrine Life and Shrine Pilgrimage”, in Shinto: A History, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, pages 267–268:
topics: geography
natural-sciences
glosses: A dictionary or index of geographical locations.
examples: text: [A]ll the brighter stars of the sky are registered in their true relations one to another, on charts and photographic plates. […] When a higher precision is required, one must consult those gazetteers of the sky known as star catalogues.
ref: 1897, David P[eck] Todd, “The Stars and the Cosmogony”, in A New Astronomy, New York, N.Y.; Cincinnati, Oh.: American Book Company, →OCLC, page 426:
text: The mountain was McKinley. At twenty thousand feet, it was a third lower than Everest but, in the gazetteers of mountaineering, was highly prized because its rise from plain to peak – what climbers call the 'uplift', a technical description with a metaphor hiding behind it – is greater than that of the Nepalese skyscraper.
ref: 2013, Mark Lawson, “Continuing Service to Dead Horse: Alaska”, in The Battle for Room Service: Journeys to All the Safe Places, London: Picador, →ISBN, page 123:
text: Statistical gazetteers of the time that were written explicitly for merchants, such as Timothy Pitkin's Statistical View, were filled with pages of international import and export data but included only a few, rather meager population tables.
ref: 2017, Eli Cook, “The Hunt for Growth”, in The Pricing of Progress: Economic Indicators and the Capitalization of American Life, Cambridge, Mass.; London: Harvard University Press, →ISBN, page 144:
text: Unlike other prehistoric processes, there is no comprehensive gazetteer of radiocarbon dates for the entire Bell Beaker phenomenon apart from a few high-quality regional datasets[…].
ref: 2024 February, Mark Vander Linden, “Where and When?”, in Manuel Fernández-Götz, Bettina Arnold, editors, The Bell Beaker Phenomenon in Europe: A Harmony of Difference (Cambridge Elements; Elements in the Archaeology of Europe), Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, →DOI, →ISBN, →ISSN, page 18:
glosses: A similar descriptive list (often alphabetical) of information on other subjects.
Coordinate terms: sense: all
word: atlas
word: dictionary
Derived terms: gazetteerish