Gazetteer

Gazetteer, a geographical or topographical dictionary, in which the names of places are arranged in alphabetical order, and statistical and other information is given concerning each. The word originally meant a writer in gazettes or newspapers - a sense which it retained in the. 18th century. Its present meaning is due to the title of Laurence Echard's geographical dictionary of Europe, The Gazetteer's or Newsman's Interqjreter (1703). In 1704 a second part was published, dealing with Asia, Africa, ami America, in which the work is described as The Gazetteer.