Directory

Definition and stakes

1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, Volume 8… (1911)

“ DIRECTORY, a term meaning literally that which guides or directs, and so applied to a book or set of rules giving directions for public worship. The directorium or ordo of the Roman Church contains regulations as to the Mass and office to be used on each day throughout the year, and the word is found in the Directory for the Publick Worship of God drawn up in 1644 at the Westminster Assembly. ”
Source: Wikisource

Portrait of Benjamin Vaughan Abbott Benjamin Vaughan Abbott,  Popular Science Monthly (1882)

“ When the directory for London was established, which was about seventy years ago, the necessary information was gathered or furnished by post-office clerks; hence the book was called, naturally enough, the "Post-Office Directory." In later years the post-office aid was discontinued; the proprietor of the enterprise continued, however, to issue the book annually, on information gathered by his own canvassers. ”
Source: Wikisource

Get perspective with Kwize: daily news enlightened by great literature