lista

Forms

lista f (genitive listae); first declension^[1][2] Also listra.^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Proto-Germanic *līstō (“strip, border”), a medieval borrowing from Germanic.^[1][3] Compare Old High German lista (“strip, border”), Old Norse lista (“border, selvage”) and Old English liste (“border of cloth”).^[4] Etymonline traces the Germanic word to Proto-Indo-European *leizd- (“border, band”),^[4] which Köbler gives with a query.^[3] In British sources it may also come from Old French liste.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler finds it in glossaries, in Odilo of Cluny and in charters from the 10th century on.^[3] The Corpus glossary has it in the spelling lesta, with an Old English gloss.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Its first senses were a border, hem or edging and a rim or edge;^[1] it was also a measure of land.^[1] In British sources it is a decorative border or band on copes and napkins, the selvage marking the edge of a piece of cloth (a regulation of 1279 measures foreign cloth between the listae), a strip on a ship or a building, and a stripe of colour on a horse.^[2]

From the strip of ground fenced off came the barrier around a place for a duel, joust or tournament, and that around a fair.^[2] English took over the Old French word as Middle English liste, “border, stripe”, in the late 13th century; the sense “catalogue” followed about 1600.^[4]

Timeline

• 10th century – Charters use it.^[3]
• 1254 – A record from Leicester uses it of a band sewn on cloth.^[2]
• late 13th century – Middle English has liste “border, stripe”.^[4]
• 1279 – A regulation measures cloth between its selvages.^[2]
• 1290 – Used for the barriers of a tournament at Winchester.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (Medieval Latin) A border, hem, edging; a decorative band.^[1][2]
2. (Medieval Latin) The selvage of a piece of cloth.^[2]
3. (Medieval Latin) A rim, edge; a strip on a ship or building.^[1][2]
4. (Medieval Latin) A stripe of colour.^[2]
5. (Medieval Latin) A measure of land.^[1]
6. (Medieval Latin) A barrier around the lists of a tournament or around a fair.^[2]

Related words

• English list

Usage notes

Lista was also the name of an ancient town of central Italy near Reate, a word of quite another origin.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org