label

Etymology

From Middle English label (“narrow band, strip of cloth”), from Old French label, lambel (Modern French lambeau), from Frankish *lappā (“torn piece of cloth”), from Proto-Germanic *lappǭ, *lappô (“cloth stuff, rag, scraps, flap, dewlap, lobe, rabbit ear”), from Proto-Indo-European *leb- (“blade”). Cognate with Old High German lappa (“rag, piece of cloth”), Old English læppa (“skirt, flap of a garment”). More at lap.

noun

1. A small ticket or sign giving information about something to which it is attached or intended to be attached.
   We laughed at her because the label was still on her new sweater.
   The label says this silk scarf should not be washed in the washing machine.
   Although the label priced this poster at three pounds, I got it for two.
2. A name given to something or someone to categorise them as part of a particular social group.
   Ever since he started going to the rock club, he's been given the label "waster".
3. (music) A company that sells records.
   The label signed the band after hearing a demo tape.
4. (computing) A user-defined alias for a numerical designation, the reverse of an enumeration.
   Storage devices can be given by label or ID.
5. (computing) A named place in source code that can be jumped to using a GOTO or equivalent construct.
6. (heraldry) A charge resembling the strap crossing the horse’s chest from which pendants are hung.
7. (obsolete) A tassel.
8. A small strip, especially of paper or parchment (or of some material attached to parchment to carry the seal), but also of iron, brass, land, etc.
   Ere this hand, by thee to Romeo seal'd, / Shall be the label to another deed. Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, iv.
   Where Balak met Balaam, standing as it were on his tiptoes on the very last labell of his land, to reach forth […] 1650, Fuller, Pisgah, IV. i. 25
   The flesh and skin hung down in long Collops and Labels. 1679, Hist. of Jetzer, section 5
9. A piece of writing added to something, such as a codicil appended to a will.
10. (historical) A brass rule with sights, formerly used with a circumferentor to take altitudes.
11. (architecture) The projecting moulding by the sides, and over the tops, of openings in mediaeval architecture.
    Sculptured ends of labels are called label-stops. 2018, Marilyn Stokstad, Medieval Art, Routledge
12. In mediaeval and later art, a representation of a band or scroll containing an inscription.
    2654. Two-handled globular vase; early Deruta lustred ware; centre surrounded by a band of scroll work; on each side the neck is an oval compartment with clasped hands, and a label scroll inscribed "Co pura fe.;" decoration, blue outline on white ground filled in with yellow lustre. 1859, Inventory of the Objects forming the Collections of the Museum of Ornamental Art at South Kensington, Victoria and Albert Museum, page 34
    Boime correctly suggests that medieval artists who employed labels or scrolls to gloss illustrations typically configured text and image in visually overlapping, but cognitively separate, spaces. 2000, The Rutgers Art Review
    The author notes that: Each of these held in one Hand a Scroll or Label, upon which were inscribed in Latin, but in the Old English Character, the Names of Kings and Saints of the Royal Line of MERCIA. Many of the Labels are broke off, others are so much defaced, that only a Syllable or two can be read. 2011, Catherine A M Clarke, Mapping the Medieval City: Space, Place and Identity in Chester c.1200-1600, University of Wales Press
    While word balloons had been present in Europe for some time, from the phylactery (inscribed scroll) seen in medieval art to the 'labels' or 'banners' of nineteenth-century English satirical illustrator George Cruikshank, among others ... 2012, David Glover, Scott McCracken, The Cambridge Companion to Popular Fiction, Cambridge University Press, page 177
13. (graphical user interface) A non-interactive control or widget displaying text, often used to describe the purpose of another control.

verb

1. (transitive) To put a label (a ticket or sign) on (something).
   The shop assistant labeled all the products in the shop.
2. (ditransitive) To give a label to (someone or something) in order to categorise that person or thing.
   He's been unfairly labeled as a cheat, although he's only ever cheated once.
   A friend of mine who runs an intellectual magazine was grousing about his movie critic, complaining that though the fellow had liked The Godfather (page 58), he had neglected to label it clearly as a masterpiece. 1972-12-29, Richard Schickel, “Masterpieces underrated and overlooked”, in Life, volume 73, number 25, page 22
3. (biochemistry) To replace specific atoms by their isotope in order to track the presence or movement of this isotope through a reaction, metabolic pathway or cell.
4. (biochemistry) To add a detectable substance, either transiently or permanently, to a biological substance in order to track the presence of the label-substance combination either in situ or in vitro
   2015, "Protein binder woes" (editorial), Nature Methods, 12(5) (May): 373. They may be used to label and image a protein within tissue, to isolate cells on the basis of marker expression, or to physically capture a protein from a complex biological mixture....