Words & WritingGreek → English
Catalogue
/ˈkætəlɒɡ/noun
An ordered list of items, often with descriptions.
The Greek roots
κατά
katá
down, throughout
λέγειν
légein
to pick out, recount
Literally: “a reckoning down the list”
The story of the word
καταλέγειν is to pick things out one after another and recite them, which is exactly what the Catalogue of Ships in Iliad 2 does, ship by ship, for over a thousand vessels. The noun κατάλογος travelled through Late Latin and Old French to reach English in the 15th century as any orderly list. Trade turned it into a book of goods in the 19th century, and libraries turned it into a verb.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Late Latin → Old French → English
- First recorded
- 15th century
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
dialogueanalogueeclecticlexicon
In a sentence
The auction catalogue ran to four hundred lots, most of them junk.