list

Etymology 1

From Middle English lī̆st, lī̆ste (“band, stripe; hem, selvage; border, edge, rim; list, specification; barriers enclosing area for jousting, etc.”), from Old English līste (“hem, edge, strip”), or Old French liste, listre (“border; band; strip of paper; list”), or Medieval Latin lista, all from Proto-West Germanic *līstā, from Proto-Germanic *līstǭ (“band, strip; hem, selvage; border, edge”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *leys- (“to trace, track”). The word is cognate with Saterland Frisian Lieste (“margin, strip, list”), Dutch lijst (“picture frame, list”), German Low German Liest (“edging, border”), German Leiste (“strip, rail, ledge; (heraldry) bar”), Swedish lista (“list”), Icelandic lista, listi (“list”), Italian lista (“list; strip”), Portuguese lista (“list”), Spanish lista (“list, roll; stripe”), Galician lista (“band, strip; list”), Finnish lista (“(informal) list; batten”).

noun

1. A strip of fabric, especially from the edge of a piece of cloth.
2. Material used for cloth selvage.
   Previous to the offering up of prayer, however, the persons chosen for this office [of praying for the people] had divested themselves of their boots and put on list slippers, their hands being washed by "the descendants of Levi" at a basin near the Holy of Holies. 18 September 1871, “The Jewish New Year”, in The Jewish Herald: A Record of Christian Effort for the Salvation of Israel, London: John Snow & Co.,[…]; and the British Society [for the Propagation of the Gospel Among the Jews],[…], published 1 November 1871, →OCLC, page 174
   "How is it, then, that the woman who came into the room about nine left to traces with her muddy boots?" / "I am glad you raise the point. It occurred to me at the time. The charwomen are in the habit of taking off their boots at the commissionaire's office, and putting on list slippers." 1893, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “The Naval Treaty”, in The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, New York, N.Y.: A. L. Burt, →OCLC; republished London: John Murray,[…], January 1950, →OCLC, page 255
3. A register or roll of paper consisting of a compilation or enumeration of a set of possible items; the compilation or enumeration itself.
   Mostly, the microbiome is beneficial. […] Research over the past few years, however, has implicated it in diseases from atherosclerosis to asthma to autism. Dr Yoshimoto and his colleagues would like to add liver cancer to that list. 29 June 2013, “A punch in the gut: How microbes promote liver cancer in the overweight”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, pages 72–73
4. (in the plural, historical) The barriers or palisades used to fence off a space for jousting or tilting tournaments.
   They ran down to the lists and Peter came outside the ropes to meet them, his face red and sweaty, his chest heaving. 1951, C. S. Lewis, “Chapter 14. How All Were Very Busy”, in Prince Caspian
5. (in the plural, military, historical) The scene of a military contest; the ground or field of combat; an enclosed space that serves as a battlefield; the site of a pitched battle.
   Come, stack arms, Men! Pile on the rails; stir up the campfire bright; no matter if the canteen fails, we'll make a roaring night. Here Shenandoah brawls along, there burly Blue Ridge echoes strong, to swell the Brigade's rousing song, of “Stonewall Jackson’s Way.” We see him now — the old slouched hat cocked o’er his eye askew, the shrewd, dry smile, the speech so pat, so calm, so blunt, so true. The “Blue-Light Elder” knows ’em well; says he, “That’s Banks — he’s fond of shell; Lord save his soul! We’ll give him” — well, that’s “Stonewall Jackson’s Way.” Silence! Ground arms! Kneel all! Caps off! Old Blue Light’s going to pray. Strangle the fool that dares to scoff: Attention! 'Tis his way. Appealing from his native sod in forma pauperis to God: “Lay bare thine arm, stretch forth thy rod! Amen!” That’s “Stonewall’s Way.” He’s in the saddle now. Fall in! Steady, the whole brigade! Hill’s at the ford, cut off — we’ll win his way out, ball and blade! What matter if our shoes are worn? What matter if our feet are torn? “Quick step! We’re with him before the morn!” That’s “Stonewall Jackson’s Way.” The sun’s bright lances rout the mists of morning, and by George! Here’s Longstreet struggling in the lists, hemmed in an ugly gorge. Pope and his Yankees, whipped before, “Bay’nets and grape!” hear Stonewall roar; “Charge, Stuart! Pay off Ashby’s score!” in “Stonewall Jackson’s Way.” Ah! Maiden, wait and watch and yearn for news of Stonewall’s band! Ah! Widow read with eyes that burn that ring upon thy hand. Ah! Wife, sew on, pray on, hope on! Thy life shall not be all forlorn. The foe had better ne’er been born that gets in “Stonewall’s Way.” 1862, John Williamson Palmer, Stonewall Jackson's Way
6. (computing, programming) A codified representation of a list used to store data or in processing; especially, in the Lisp programming language, a data structure consisting of a sequence of zero or more items.
   Lisp is an applicative language. This means that it is structured around applying functions (operations) to a linked list of arguments that accompany those functions. […] A function call or function definition is only coded in the syntax of a list, which can be of an indefinite length. Thus, the list is the only data structure for a Lisp program. 10 March 1985, Ed Acly, “A Tale of Three Languages: C, Ada & Lisp”, in Computerworld: The Newsweekly for the Computer Community, volume XIX, number 12, Framingham, Mass.: CW Communications, →ISSN, →OCLC, page ID/10, columns 1–2
7. (architecture) A little square moulding; a fillet or listel.
   STRIÆ, in ancient architecture, the liſts, fillets or rays which ſeparate the ſtriges or flutings of columns. 1788, [John Carter], “STRIÆ”, in The Builder’s Magazine: Or, A Universal Dictionary for Architects, Carpenters, Masons, Bricklayers, &c.[…], new edition, London: Printed for E. Newbery,[…], →OCLC, page 284
   A volute is a kind of spiral scroll, used in the Ionic and Composite capitals, of which it makes the principal characteristic and ornament. […] There are several diversities practised in the volute. In some, the list or edge, throughout all the circumvolutions, is in the same line or plane. […] [I]n others, the canal or one circumvolution is detached from the list of another by a vacuity or aperture. 1876, Edward Shaw, Thomas W[illiam] Silloway, George M[ilford] Harding, “Introduction”, in Civil Architecture; being a Complete Theoretical and Practical System of Building, Containing the Fundamental Principles of the Art.[…], 11th edition, Philadelphia, Pa.: Henry Carey Baird & Co.,[…], →OCLC, page 22, column 2
8. (carpentry) A narrow strip of wood, especially sapwood, cut from the edge of a board or plank.
9. (ropemaking) A piece of woollen cloth with which the yarns are grasped by a worker.
10. (tin-plate manufacture) The first thin coating of tin; a wire-like rim of tin left on an edge of the plate after it is coated.
11. (obsolete) A stripe.
12. (obsolete) A boundary or limit; a border.

verb

1. (transitive) To create or recite a list.
2. (transitive) To place in listings.
   As the export market for tropical hardwoods expanded, timber from tropical rain forests very rapidly became the dominant or major forest product, dominant to such an extent that trade figures often do not even list the minor forest products exported, or their value. 1993, Ooi Jin Bee, “The Tropical Rain Forest: Patterns of Exploitation and Trade”, in Tropical Deforestation: The Tyranny of Time, Singapore: Singapore University Press, page 62
3. (transitive) To sew together, as strips of cloth, so as to make a show of colours, or to form a border.
4. (transitive) To cover with list, or with strips of cloth; to put list on; to stripe as if with list.
   to list a door
5. (transitive, agriculture) To plough and plant with a lister.
6. (transitive, agriculture, chiefly Southern US) To prepare (land) for a cotton crop by making alternating beds and alleys with a hoe.
7. (transitive, carpentry) To cut away a narrow strip, as of sapwood, from the edge of.
   to list a board
8. (transitive, military) To enclose (a field, etc.) for combat.
9. (transitive, obsolete) To engage a soldier, etc.; to enlist.
   […] It is therefore ordered that the Maior and Aldermen of Colchester [et al.], shall forthwith procure and raise in the said severall townes, and other pleces adjacent, two thousand horses for dragooners, or as manie as possible they may, for the service as aforesaid, and with all possible speed to send them up to London unto Thomas Browne Grocer, and Maximilian Beard Girdler, by us appointed to list horses for the service aforesaid; […] 28 October 1642, [Philip Morant], History and Antiquities of the Borough of Colchester, in the County of Essex.[…], Colchester, Essex: Printed and sold by I. Marsden, …, published 1810, →OCLC, pages 48–49
10. (intransitive, obsolete) To engage in public service by enrolling one's name; to enlist.
11. To give a building of architectural or historical interest listed status; see also the adjective listed.
    A century later, BR demolished the downside main buildings, so the eastbound and central platforms were promptly listed - which has ensured their survival, albeit increasingly neglected in recent years. This has now been rectified, …. February 15 2021, Robin Leleux, “Awards honour the best restoration projects: The London Underground Operational Enhancement Award: Hanwell”, in RAIL, number 946, page 55

Etymology 2

From Middle English list, liste (“ability, cleverness, cunning, skill; adroitness, dexterity; strategem, trick; device, design, token”), from Old English list (“art, craft; cleverness, cunning, experience, skill”), from Proto-West Germanic *listi, from Proto-Germanic *listiz (“art, craft”), from Proto-Indo-European *leys-, *leyǝs- (“furrow, trace, track, trail”). The word is cognate with Dutch list (“artifice, guile, sleight; ruse, strategem”), German List (“cunning, guile; ploy, ruse, trick”), Low German list (“artifice, cunning; prudence, wisdom”), Icelandic list (“art”), Saterland Frisian list (“cunning, knowledge”), Scots list (“art, craft, skill; cunning”), Swedish list (“art; cunning, guile, wile; ruse, trick; stealth”), and possibly Spanish listo (“clever”). It is also related to learn, lore.

noun

1. (archaic) Art; craft; cunning; skill.
   In discussing the Syllabus and the last dogma of 1870, so much must be allowed for Italian list and cunning, or a word-fence. An Englishman, with his matter-of-fact way of putting things, is no match for these gentry. 16 November 1877, “Vaticanism”, in The Literary World. Choice Readings from the Best New Books, and Critical Reviews, volume XVI, number 420 (New Series), London: James Clarke & Co.,[…], →OCLC, page 313, column 3
   Sophos, fab[le] 40. "The foxes had heard that the fowls were sick, and went to see them decked in peacock's feathers; said of men who speak friendly, but only with list or cunning within." 1893, S[olomon] C[aesar] Malan, chapter XXVI, in Original Notes on the Book of Proverbs. Mostly from Eastern Writings, volumes III (Ch. xxi.–xxxi.), London: Williams and Norgate,[…], →OCLC, page 349
   For when the guileful monster smiled / Snakes left their holes and hissed,— / And stroking soft his silken beard / Raised creatures full of list. 1897, Lilian Winser, “Lossenbury Woods”, in Lays and Legends of the Weald of Kent, London: Elkin Mathews,[…], →OCLC, page 44
   'The general bass, in its fixed lines, is taken by surprise and overwhelmed by List [Franz] Liszt]' (List = cunning); anonymous lithograph (c 1842). 1990, Alexander L. Ringer, “The Rise of Urban Musical Life between the Revolutions, 1789–1848”, in Alexander [L.] Ringer, editor, The Early Romantic Era: Between Revolutions: 1789 and 1848 (Man and Music; 6), Basingstoke, Hampshire, London: The Macmillan Press, →DOI, figure 13, caption, page 22
   [Der] Pleier […] provides a 'courtly corrective' to Daniel in the shape of his hero, Garel. The latter wins his fight not by list but through straightforward knightly prowess, […] 1992, Reading Medieval Studies: Annual Proceedings of the Graduate Centre for Medieval Studies in the University of Reading, [Reading, Berkshire]: Graduate Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Reading, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 92
   It is worth noting that, contrary to Alexios who according to his daughter did not scruple to use any tricks to achieve his goal, Manuel [I Komnenos], as depicted by [John] Kinnamos, preferred "to win by war rather than by list"[…]. 2000, Jakov Ljubarskij, “John Kinnamos as a Writer”, in Cordula Scholz, Georgios Makris, editors, ΠΟΛΥΠΛΕΥΡΟΣ ΝΟΥΣ [POLYPLEUROS NOUS]: Miscellanea für Peter Schreiner zu seinem 60. Geburtstag [VERSATILE MIND: Miscellanea for Peter Schreiner for His 60th Birthday] (Byzantinisches Archiv [Byzantine Archive]; 19), Munich, Leipzig: K[laus] G[erhard] Saur, footnote 11, page 166
   One man can accomplish with list (magic), that which a thousand could not accomplish, regardless of how strong they were. 2008, Jon B. Sherman, The Magician in Medieval German Literature (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation), Urbana, Champaign, Ill.: University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, →OCLC

Etymology 3

From Middle English listen, from Old English hlystan (“to listen”), from hlyst (“hearing”), from Proto-West Germanic *hlusti, from Proto-Germanic *hlustiz (“hearing”).

verb

1. (intransitive, poetic) To listen.
   Go my flock where ye list on the plain, / And leave your fond shepherd to weep; / I shall never be able again / To guide your stray steps, my poor sheep: […] 1801, Thomas Browne, “Delia: A Pastoral Ballad—in Four Parts”, in Poems on Several Occasions, New York, N.Y.: Printed for William Durell, […] by George F. Hopkins,[…], →OCLC, part the fourth (Rejection), page 60
   We list to the trumpings that herald the storm, / To the roll of the drum, and the order to form! 1860–1861, “What of the Night?”, in Frank Moore, editor, The Rebellion Record: A Diary of American Events, with Documents, Narratives, Illustrative Incidents, Poetry, etc., volume II, New York, N.Y.: G[eorge] P[almer] Putnam,[…], published 1862, →OCLC, page 96, column 1
   Be of good cheer, and list to what I speak. 1865, Sophocles, “Philoctetes”, in E[dward] H[ayes] Plumptre, transl., The Tragedies of Sophocles: A New Translation, with a Biographical Essay, volume II, London, New York, N.Y.: Alexander Strahan, publisher, →OCLC, line 1267, page 247
   Ye hold me as a woman, weak of will, / And strive to sway me: but my heart is stout, / Nor fears to speak its uttermost to you, / Albeit ye know its message. Praise or blame, / Even as ye list,—I reck not of your words. 1881, Aeschylus, “Agamemnon”, in E[dmund] D[oidge] A[nderson] Morshead, transl., The House of Atreus: Being The Agamemnon, Libation-bearers, and Furies of Æschylus. Translated into English Verse, London: Simpkin and Marshall,[…]; Winchester, Hampshire: Warren and Son,[…], →OCLC, pages 65–66
2. (transitive, poetic) To listen to.

Etymology 4

From Middle English listen, list, liste, leste, lesten (“to choose, desire, wish (to do something)”), from Old English lystan, from Proto-West Germanic *lustijan, from Proto-Germanic *lustijaną, from Proto-Germanic *lustuz (“pleasure”). The word is cognate with Saterland Frisian läste (“to wish for, desire, crave”), West Frisian lêste (“to like, desire”), Dutch lusten (“to appreciate, like; to lust”), German lüsten, gelüsten (“to desire, want, crave”), Danish lyste (“to desire, feel like, want”), Faroese lysta (“to desire”). The noun sense is from the verb, or from Middle English list, liste, lest, leste (“desire, wish; craving, longing; enjoyment, joy, pleasure”), which is derived from Middle English listen, list (verb).

verb

1. (transitive, archaic) To be pleasing to.
2. (transitive, archaic) To desire, like, or wish (to do something).
   License consists in doing what one lists; liberty consists in doing in the right manner the good only; and our knowledge of the good must come from a higher principle, from above. 1959, Leo Strauss, “What is Political Philosophy?”, in What is Political Philosophy?: And Other Studies, Glencoe, Ill.: The Free Press, →OCLC, page 51
   The spirit seemed to blow where it listed among a historically motley collection of Catholic theologians, Puritan zealots and American squires. 1994, John [Wyon] Burrow, The Historian: The Magazine for Members of the Historical Association, London: The Historical Association, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 176, column 2

noun

1. (obsolete) Desire, inclination.

Etymology 5

Uncertain; possibly from tilting on lists in jousts, or from Etymology 4 in the sense of inclining towards what one desires.

noun

1. (architecture) A tilt to a building.
2. (nautical) A careening or tilting to one side, usually not intentionally or under a vessel's own power.

verb

1. (transitive, nautical) To cause (something) to tilt to one side.
   the steady wind listed the ship
2. (intransitive, nautical) To tilt to one side.
   the ship listed to port
   Even a small camber one way caused the whole outfit to list alarmingly. 2000, Bob Foster, Birdum or Bust!, Henley Beach, SA: Seaview Press, page 173