The London Gazette - "Gazetted"

"Gazetted"

• In time of war, dispatches from the various conflicts are published in The London Gazette. People referred to are said to have been mentioned in despatches. When members of the armed forces are promoted, and these promotions are published here, the person is said to have been “gazetted”.

• Being "gazetted" (or "in the gazette") sometimes also meant having official notice of one's bankruptcy published, as in the classic ten-line poem comparing the stolid yeomen of 1722 to the lavishly spending faux-genteel farmers of 1822:

  Man to the plough;

  Wife to the cow;

  Girl to the yarn;

  Boy to the barn;

  And your rent will be netted.

  Man tally-ho;

  Miss piano;

  Wife silk and satin;

  Boy Greek and Latin;

  And you'll all be Gazetted.

The phrase "gazetted fortune hunter" is also probably derived from this. Notices of engagement and marriage were also formerly published in the Gazette.