Forms: 5 cateloge, cathaloge, catholog, cattologue, 7 cathalogue, 6, 9 catalog, 6– catalogue. [a. F. catalogue, and ad. late L. catalogus, a. Gr. κατάλογος register, list, catalogue, f. καταλέγειν to choose, pick out, enlist, enroll, reckon in a list, etc., f. κατά down + λέγ-ειν to pick, choose, reckon up, etc.]
1. A list, register, or complete enumeration; in this simple sense now Obs. or arch.
1460. Capgrave, Chron., 71. And than was Cyriacus Pope, but … he is not put in the Cateloge of Popes.
1483. Caxton, Gold. Leg., 295/4. He was … set to the Cathaloge of martirs.
c. 1535. Dewes, Introd. Fr., in Palsgr., 936. They be noted … among the Catalogue of verbes.
1587. in Ellis, Orig. Lett., II. 229, III. 133. That leaving a CATALOG of all OUR NAMES we may depart.
1630. Wadsworth, Sp. Pilg., vii. 69. A Catalogue of the Monasteries, Seminaries, and Nunneries in Flanders.
1660. (title) Englands Glory, Or, an Exact Catalogue of the Lords of His Maiesties most Honourable Privy Councel.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 74, ¶ 10. In the Catalogue of the Slain the Author has followed the Example of the greatest ancient Poets.
1839. Yeowell, Anc. Brit. Ch., xi. (1847), 127. In some of the catalogues of the bishops, St. Petrock is mentioned as the first.
b. fig. List, roll, series, etc.
1590. Barrow & Greenwood, in Conferences, 41. Your cattologue of lyes wherof you accuse vs.
1611. Shaks., Cymb., I. iv. 5. Though the Catalogue of his endowments had bin tabled by his side.
1719. Young, Revenge, II. i. I have turn’d o’er the catalogue of woes.
1792. Burgess, in Corr. Ld. Auckland (1861), II. 438. To fill up the catalogue of their calamities.
1824. Travers, Dis. Eye, 325. The frightful catalogue of disasters which the spirit of controversy promulgates.
2. Now usually distinguished from a mere list or enumeration, by systematic or methodical arrangement, alphabetical or other order, and often by the addition of brief particulars, descriptive, or aiding identification, indicative of locality, position, date, price, or the like.
1667. Pepys, Diary (1879), IV. 227. Home, and to my chamber, and there finished my Catalogue of books with my own hand.
1676. Lister, in Ray’s Corr. (1848), 124. I am well pleased your Catalogue of Plants is again to be printed.
1727. Swift, Gulliver, III. iii. 196. They have made a catalogue of ten thousand fixed stars.
1834. Mrs. Somerville, Connex. Phys. Sc., xxxvii. (1849), 416. The first catalogue of double stars, in which their places and relative positions are given.
1870. L’Estrange, Miss Mitford, I. v. 154. [It] may apply almost as well to the Booksellers’ Catalogue as to the Parish Register.
Mod. (title), The London Catalogue of British Plants. The British Museum Catalogue.
