Also 7 bolletine, -ettine. [In 17th c. ad. It. bullettino, bollettino dim. of bulletta = BULLET sb.1; but the mod. word (senses 2, 3), first recorded in latter half of 18th c., appears to be a. Fr. bulletin.]
† 1. a. A short note or memorandum. b. An official certificate; a warrant of appointment to an office. Obs.
[1645. Evelyn, Mem. (1819), I. 181. We went now towards Ferrara, carrying with us a Bulletino or bill of health.]
1651. trans. Life Father Sarpi (1676), 46. He … kept under Key … even to the least bolletines and short notes that he made.
1673. Ray, Journ. Low C., Venice, 178. The sealing of bollettines for them that are to undertake any new office, &c.
2. A short account or report of public news or events, issued by authority; applied esp., c. 1800, to a report sent from the seat of war by a commander for publication at home.
1791. Burke, Appeal Whigs (R.). The pithy and sententious brevity of these bulletins of ancient rebellion.
1792. Ld. Spencer, in Ld. Auckland’s Corr. (1861), II. 474. They brought me … a bulletin, for which I am much obliged to you.
1813. Wellington, Lett., in Gurw., Disp., X. 410. There is at Lisbon a newspaper of the 13th containing the French bulletin of their action.
1840. Carlyle, Heroes, vi. 374. ‘False as a bulletin’ became a proverb in Napoleon’s time.
1880. Daily News, 29 Oct., 6/6. Daily bulletins of the weather are despatched to subscribers.
3. An official statement as to the health of an invalid.
1765. H. Walpole, Corr. (1817), II. 312. The dauphin is at the point of death. Every morning the physicians frame an account of him, and happy is he or she who can produce a copy of this lie, called a bulletin.
1836. Dickens, Sk. Boz, 5. Verbal bulletins of the state of his health were circulated throughout the parish half-a-dozen times a day.
1870. Disraeli, Lothair, lix. Lothair, after having heard the first … bulletin of the surgeon, had been obliged to leave the convent.
Hence Bulletin v. trans. To make known by bulletin.
1838. Jerrold, Men of Char., J. Pippins, vii. Job again and again bulletined his convalescence.
1884. Reading (Pa.) Herald, 3 April. Mr. L—— has made arrangements to have all … championship games bulletined.
