----------------------------Original message----------------------------
Following up on our previous nessage: The shift in meaning (such as it is)
seems to have been pretty recent; the OED definitions emphasize the old,
"softer" meaning [description of a place], while the newer dictionaries
empasize the newer meaning [surveyed description including relief].
 
I suspect the USGS of being responsible for this shift. Certainly the USGS's
distinction between "topographic" and "planimetric" maps in their general map
series (regardless of scale) encourages the newer meaning, and they have used
the word "topographic" to describe contour-relief maps in general for a long
time... not on the maps themselves, but in indexing them.
 
A question for our compatriots outside of the US, especially in the UK, where
the Ordnance Survey does not seem to use the word "topographic" except to
describe surveys at a large scale: how do you use the word, and what
distinguishes topographic from non-topographic maps in your mind?
 
Nat Case
Hedberg Maps
White River Jct, VT