"a list of separate items, an itemized enumeration," usually in order and with some description, early 15c., cathaloge, from Old French catalogue "list, index" (14c.), and directly from Late Latin catalogus, from Greek katalogos "a list, register, enrollment" (such as the katalogos neon, the "catalogue of ships" in the "Iliad"), from katalegein "to reckon up, tell at length," from kata "down; completely" (see cata-) + legein "to say, count," from PIE root *leg- (1) "to collect, gather," with derivatives meaning "to speak (to 'pick out words')."
1590s, "to make a catalogue;" see catalogue (n.). From 1630s as "to enter into a catalogue." Related: Catalogued; cataloguer; cataloguing.
word-forming element meaning "down, downward," but also "through, on, against, concerning," etc., from Latinized form of Greek kata-, before vowels kat-, from kata "down, downward, down from, down to," from PIE *kmt- "down, with, along" (source also of Hittite kattan (adv.) "below, underneath," katta "along with"). Occasionally in Greek it had senses of "against" (catapult) or "wrongly" (catachresis), also "along, through, over, across, concerning." Also sometimes used as an intensive or with a sense of completion of action (catalogue). Very active in ancient Greek, this prefix is found in English mostly in words borrowed through Latin after c. 1500.
an alternative spelling of catalogue. There are examples from 16c., but in modern times it seems to have emerged late 19c. (Century Dictionary, 1895, describes it as "a recent spelling"), but it was used earlier in German.
Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to collect, gather," with derivatives meaning "to speak" on the notion of "to gather words, to pick out words."
It forms all or part of: alexia; analects; analogous; analogue; analogy; anthology; apologetic; apologue; apology; catalogue; coil; colleague; collect; college; collegial; Decalogue; delegate; dialect; dialogue; diligence; doxology; dyslexia; eclectic; eclogue; elect; election; epilogue; hapax legomenon; homologous; horology; ideologue; idiolect; intelligence; lectern; lectio difficilior; lection; lector; lecture; leech (n.2) "physician;" legacy; legal; legate; legend; legible; legion; legislator; legitimate; lesson; lexicon; ligneous; ligni-; logarithm; logic; logistic; logo-; logogriph; logopoeia; Logos; -logue; -logy; loyal; monologue; neglect; neologism; philology; privilege; prolegomenon; prologue; relegate; sacrilege; select; syllogism; tautology; trilogy.
It is the hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: Greek legein "to say, tell, speak, declare; to count," originally, in Homer, "to pick out, select, collect, enumerate;" lexis "speech, diction;" logos "word, speech, thought, account;" Latin legere "to gather, choose, pluck; read," lignum "wood, firewood," literally "that which is gathered," legare "to depute, commission, charge," lex "law" (perhaps "collection of rules"); Albanian mb-ledh "to collect, harvest;" Gothic lisan "to collect, harvest," Lithuanian lesti "to pick, eat picking;" Hittite less-zi "to pick, gather."
"catalogue consisting of names in a row or series," c. 1600, from Middle English liste "border, edging, stripe" (late 13c.), from Old French liste "border, band, row, group," also "strip of paper," or from Old Italian lista "border, strip of paper, list," both from Germanic sources (compare Old High German lista "strip, border, list," Old Norse lista "border, selvage," Old English liste "border of cloth, fringe"), from Proto-Germanic *liston, from PIE *leizd- "border, band."
The original Middle English sense is now obsolete. The sense of "enumeration" is from strips of paper used as a sort of catalogue. The native Old English form of the word lingered as list in a few specialized senses. List price is from 1871.
1550s, "action of enumerating," from French énumération, from Latin enumerationem (nominative enumeratio) "a counting up," noun of action from past-participle stem of enumerare "to reckon up, count over, enumerate," from assimilated form of ex "out, out of" (see ex-) + numerare "to count, number," from numerus "number" (see number (n.)). Meaning "a list, catalogue" is from 1724.
also deaccession, "remove an entry for an item from the register of a museum, library, etc." (often a euphemism for "to sell"), by 1968, from de- "off, away" + accession, which had been used since 1887 in library publications as a verb meaning "to add to a catalogue." Related: De-accessioned; de-accessioning.
