Gazette

Mike Orr [sluggoster at gmail.com]

Thu, 6 Nov 2008 22:25:07 -0800

"[The word 'gazette'] has its real roots in Italian, possibly in gazzetta, 'little magpie': the sixteenth-century Venetian news-sheets were eclectic collections of information for an audience of chatterers."

-Henry Hitchings, "The Secret Life of Words: How English Became English", page 50, (c) 2008; Farrar, Straus and Giroux; New York

-- 
Mike Orr <[email protected]>

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Steve Brown [steve.stevebrown at gmail.com]

Fri, 7 Nov 2008 09:23:28 +0000

On Fri, Nov 7, 2008 at 6:25 AM, Mike Orr <[email protected]> wrote:

> "[The word 'gazette'] has its real roots in Italian, possibly in
> gazzetta, 'little magpie': the sixteenth-century Venetian news-sheets
> were eclectic collections of information for an audience of
> chatterers."

One of the collective nouns for magpies is 'tidings'.

Very apt.

The others are gulp, charm or murder. Not so apt.

-- 
Steve

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