Listáinak

Listáinak is a Basque-derived plural noun used to denote sublists or subcategories within a larger list, particularly in archival, bibliographic, and data-organization contexts.

In practice, listáinak function as smaller, related lists that group items by a shared attribute such as topic, date, or format. They can be nested under a parent list and may be used to facilitate navigation, search, and cross-referencing in catalogs and databases.

Usage and examples: A digital library might organize a master list of manuscripts and create listáinak for “Latin manuscripts,” “Tenth-century manuscripts,” etc. A museum collection might provide listáinak for “Sculpture by material: stone, metal, ceramic.” These sublists help researchers locate items that share a contextual thread without scanning a single, long master list.

Etymology and status: The term is rooted in Basque language practice, where lista means list and ak is the plural suffix; usage varies by institution. Listáinak appears mostly in multilingual catalogs and scholarly works on data organization.

See also: List, Listak, Liosta, Cataloging, Metadata.