catalogare

Catalogare is a verb used in several Romance languages, notably Italian and Latin, meaning to place items in a catalog, to list, or to classify. In library science, archaeology, and information management, to catalog an item means to document its bibliographic or descriptive data, assign classification numbers, and organize it within a structured system.

Etymology: The term derives from Latin catalogare, itself from catalogus, the word for list or register, which in turn comes from the Greek katálogos meaning a listing or register; the Greek form combines kata- "down" with lógos "speech" or "word".

Usage across languages: Italian uses catalogare as the infinitive; Spanish and Portuguese use catalogar; English uses catalog or cataloging as equivalents. In scholarly writing, catalogare appears primarily in historical or linguistic contexts when discussing Latin or Italian texts.

In practice, cataloging involves describing physical or digital items, assigning metadata, and placing them in an organized framework such as catalog records, inventories, or bibliographic databases.

Common related terms include catalog, cataloging, catalogue.