gazetteer

A gazetteer is primarily a geographical dictionary or index, providing information about places. Historically, the term also referred to a journalist or publicist.1

The word "gazette" itself originally denoted a news sheet, a precursor to modern newspapers. These early publications, appearing in Venice in the mid-16th century, disseminated various forms of information, from gossip to news of explorations and advertisements. By the 17th century, "gazette" increasingly came to mean an official government publication, such as the Oxford Gazette, which is considered England's first true newspaper. The related term "gazetteer" once meant "journalist" but now refers to a geographical dictionary.231