A gazette is an
official journal, a
newspaper of record, or simply a
newspaper
A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background.
Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, spor ...
.
In English and French speaking countries, newspaper publishers have applied the name ''Gazette'' since the 17th century; today, numerous weekly and daily newspapers bear the name ''The Gazette''.
Etymology
''Gazette'' is a
loanword from the French language, which is, in turn, a 16th-century permutation of the Italian ''gazzetta'', which is the name of a particular
Venetian
Venetian often means from or related to:
* Venice, a city in Italy
* Veneto, a region of Italy
* Republic of Venice (697–1797), a historical nation in that area
Venetian and the like may also refer to:
* Venetian language, a Romance language s ...
coin. ''Gazzetta'' became an
epithet for ''newspaper'' during the early and middle 16th century, when the first Venetian newspapers cost one gazzetta. (Compare with other vernacularisms from publishing lingo, such as the British ''
penny dreadful'' and the American ''
dime novel''.) This loanword, with its various
corruptions, persists in numerous modern languages (
Slavic languages,
Turkic languages
The Turkic languages are a language family of over 35 documented languages, spoken by the Turkic peoples of Eurasia from Eastern Europe and Southern Europe to Central Asia, East Asia, North Asia ( Siberia), and Western Asia. The Turki ...
).
Government gazettes
In
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...
, with the 1700 founding of ''The Oxford Gazette'' (which became the ''
London Gazette''), the word ''gazette'' came to indicate a public journal of the government; today, such a journal is sometimes called a
government gazette
A government gazette (also known as an official gazette, official journal, official newspaper, official monitor or official bulletin) is a periodical publication that has been authorised to publish public or legal notices. It is usually establi ...
. For some governments, publishing information in a gazette was or is a legal necessity by which official documents
come into force
In law, coming into force or entry into force (also called commencement) is the process by which legislation, regulations, treaties and other legal instruments come to have legal force and effect. The term is closely related to the date of ...
and enter the
public domain. Such is the case for documents published in ''
Royal Thai Government Gazette'' (est. 1858), and in ''
The Gazette of India'' (est. 1950).
The
government of the United Kingdom requires government gazettes of its member countries. Publication of the ''
Edinburgh Gazette'', the official government newspaper in Scotland, began in 1699. The ''
Dublin Gazette'' of
Ireland followed in 1705, but ceased when the
Irish Free State
The Irish Free State ( ga, Saorstát Éireann, , ; 6 December 192229 December 1937) was a state established in December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921. The treaty ended the three-year Irish War of Independence between ...
seceded from the United Kingdom in 1922; the ''
Iris Oifigiúil'' (Irish: ''Official Gazette'') replaced it. The ''
Belfast Gazette'' of
Northern Ireland published its first issue in 1921.
''Gazette'' as a verb
Chiefly in British English, the
transitive verb ''to gazette'' means "to announce or publish in a gazette"; especially where ''gazette'' refers to a public journal or a newspaper of record. For example, "
Lake Nakuru was gazetted as a bird sanctuary in 1960 and upgraded to
National Park status in 1968."
British Army personnel decorations, promotions, and officer commissions are gazetted in the ''
London Gazette'', the "Official Newspaper of Record for the United Kingdom". ''Gazettal'' (a noun) is the act of gazetting; for example, "the gazettal of the bird sanctuary".
See also
*
Gazetteer
*
List of British colonial gazettes
*
List of English words of French origin
*
List of government gazettes
References
External links
*
Newspaper terminology
Italian inventions
Westminster system×××·
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