Brewer's: Gazette

(2 syl., g hard). A newspaper. The first newspapers were issued in Venice by the Government, and came out in manuscript once a month, during the war of 1563 between the Venetians and Turks. The intelligence was read publicly in certain places, and the fee for hearing it read was one gazetta (a Venetian coin, somewhat less than a farthing in value).

The first official English newspaper, called The Oxford Gazette, was published in 1642, at Oxford, where the Court was held. On the removal of the Court to London, the name was changed to The London Gazette. The name was revived in 1665, during the Great Fire. Now the official Gazette, published every Tuesday and Friday, contains announcements of pensions, promotions, bankruptcies, dissolutions of partnerships, etc. (See Newspapers.)

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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