label

• labell (non-standard)

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.

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /ˈleɪbəl/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪbəl

label (plural labels)

1. A small ticket or sign giving information about something to which it is attached or intended to be attached.

   Synonyms: sign, tag, ticket

   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.

   Synonyms: category, pigeonhole

   Ever since he started going to the rock club, he's been given the label "waster".

3. (music) A company that sells records.

   Synonym: record label

   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.

   Synonym: lambel

7. (obsolete) A tassel.
   • a. 1662 (date written), Thomas Fuller, The History of the Worthies of England, London: […] J[ohn] G[rismond,] W[illiam] L[eybourne] and W[illiam] G[odbid], published 1662, →OCLC:

     the arms or escutcheon of France , hanging by a label on an oak

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.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, iv.:

     Ere this hand, by thee to Romeo seal'd, / Shall be the label to another deed.

   • 1649, Jer[emy] Taylor, chapter 39, in The Great Exemplar of Sanctity and Holy Life According to the Christian Institution. […], London: […] R. N. for Francis Ash, […], →OCLC, (please specify |part=1 to 3):

     They […] 'sealed the grave, and rolled a great stone at the mouth of it' and as an ancient tradition says, bound it about with labels of iron.

   • 1650, Fuller, Pisgah, IV. i. 25:

     Where Balak met Balaam, standing as it were on his tiptoes on the very last labell of his land, to reach forth […]

   • 1679, Hist. of Jetzer, section 5:

     The flesh and skin hung down in long Collops and Labels.

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.
    • 2018, Marilyn Stokstad, Medieval Art, Routledge, →ISBN:

      Sculptured ends of labels are called label-stops.

12. In mediaeval and later art, a representation of a band or scroll containing an inscription.
    • 1859, Inventory of the Objects forming the Collections of the Museum of Ornamental Art at South Kensington, Victoria and Albert Museum, page 34:

      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.

    • 2000, The Rutgers Art Review:

      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.

    • 2011, Catherine A M Clarke, Mapping the Medieval City: Space, Place and Identity in Chester c.1200-1600, University of Wales Press, →ISBN:

      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.

    • 2012, David Glover, Scott McCracken, The Cambridge Companion to Popular Fiction, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 177:

      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 ...

13. (graphical user interface) A non-interactive control or widget displaying text, often used to describe the purpose of another control.

label (third-person singular simple present labels, present participle (UK) labelling or (US) labeling, simple past and past participle (UK) labelled or (US) labeled)

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.

   • 1972 December 29, Richard Schickel, “Masterpieces underrated and overlooked”, in Life, volume 73, number 25, page 22:

     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.

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....

• (put a ticket or sign on): tag, price
• (give a label to in order to categorise): categorise, compartmentalise, peg, pigeonhole; see also Thesaurus:classify

• relabel

• “label”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “label”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• (projecting moulding in architecture): Dictionary of Architecture (Architectural Publication Society of London)

• Abell, Beall, Bella, be-all

Borrowed from English label.

• IPA^(key): /ˈleːbəl/

• Audio

  (file)

label n (plural labels, diminutive labeltje n)

1. quality label

   Max Havelaar is het bekendste fair-tradelabel.

   Max Havelaar is the most well-known fair-trade label.

2. music label

• balle

Borrowed from English label, itself from Old French label, lambel (“fringe, strip”), 1899.

• IPA^(key): /la.bɛl/

• Audio

  (file)

label m (plural labels)

1. quality label
2. (music) record label

• labelliser

• “label”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• balle

Borrowed from English label.

• IPA^(key): /labəl/

label

1. label

From French label (with possibility of indirect loan via Dutch label), from English label, 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”).

• IPA^(key): [ˈlabɛl]
• Hyphenation: la‧bèl

labèl (first-person possessive labelku, second-person possessive labelmu, third-person possessive labelnya)

1. label:

   Synonym: etiket

   1. a small ticket or sign giving information about something to which it is attached or intended to be attached.
   2. (computing) a user-defined alias for a numerical designation, the reverse of an enumeration.
2. quality label

• “label” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016.

• lambeau
• lambel

label oblique singular, m (oblique plural labeaus or labeax or labiaus or labiax or labels, nominative singular labeaus or labeax or labiaus or labiax or labels, nominative plural label)

1. strip of fabric
2. badge; insignia

   Les armes son pere a label portoit

   His weapons bore the insignia of his father

• → English: label
  • → French: label
• French: lambeau

Unadapted borrowing from English label.

• IPA^(key): /ˈlɛj.bɛl/
• Rhymes: -ɛjbɛl
• Syllabification: la‧bel

label m inan

1. (music) music label

   Synonyms: wytwórnia, wytwórnia płytowa

• label in Polish dictionaries at PWN