item

noun

1. A single article or unit in a collection, enumeration, or series.
2. A clause of a document, such as a bill or charter.
3. An entry in an account.
4. a. A bit of information; a detail.
   b. A short piece in a newspaper or magazine.
5. A romantically involved couple: “[They] soon began seeing each other . . . and were an item for a year and a half.” (Peter J. Boyer).

adverb transitive verb i·temed, i·tem·ing, i·tems
Archaic

Origin:

Origin: From Middle English, also, moreover

Origin: , from Latin; see i- in Indo-European roots

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Word History: The word item seems to us to be very much a noun, whether it refers to an article in a collection or a bit of information. But it began its life in English (first recorded before 1398) as an adverb meaning “moreover, also, in addition.” Item was typically used in front of each object listed in an inventory, as we might put also. This use in English simply reflects a meaning of the word in Latin. However, it is easy to see how item could be taken to stand for the thing that it preceded, and so we get, for example, the sense “an article included in an enumeration.” The first such usages are found in the 16th century, while the sense “a bit of information” is not found until the 19th century.