Item Was a Latin Word Meaning Likewise
An item is a single article in a list. The word began as the Latin for also.
An item is a single article or unit in a list or collection. Latin *item* means likewise or also, and medieval clerks wrote it at the head of each new entry in an inventory: item, three barrels; item, one horse. Readers took the repeated word as the name of the thing that followed, and English gained a noun from an adverb. The informal sense of a romantic couple being *an item* is American, from the 1970s, from gossip columns listing them together.
- A single article. *The first item.*
- Likewise (Latin). *Item.*
- A news story. *A news item.*
- A couple (informal). *They are an item.*
- Latin — *item*, also. *The source.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | item | An item. |
| Plural | items | Items. |
| Verb | itemise | Itemising. |
| Adjective | itemised | An itemised bill. |
| Latin | item | Likewise. |
- Check every item on the list.List.
- A short news item.Media.
- They became an item.Informal.
Words taken from clerical shorthand
- Item — Latin for likewise, heading each entry
- Ditto — Italian for said, marking a repeat
- Etcetera — Latin for and the rest
- Ibid — Latin for in the same place, in citations
- Viz — an abbreviation of *videlicet*, namely
Latin *item*, likewise or also, used to introduce each entry in a list.
How did an adverb become a noun?
Clerks wrote item at the head of each entry in an inventory. Readers took the repeated word as the name of the thing listed.
Where does being an item come from?
American gossip columns of the 1970s, which listed couples together as a single entry.