Etymology Dictionary

LABEL,  a small slip of paper, &c.   (F.,—Teut.)   Variously used.  In heraldry, it denotes a horizontal strip with three pendants or tassels.  It is also used for a strip or slip of silk, parchment, or paper.  M. E. label, Chaucer, On the Astrolabe, pt. i. § 22; where it denotes a moveable slip or rule of metal, used with an astrolabe as a sort of pointer, and revolving on the front of it.   [Not 'fitted with sights,' as said in Webster.]—O. F. label, a label in the heraldic sense, later F. lambel; see quotations in Littré.   Cotgrave has:  'Lambel, a labell of three points.'  The doublet of lambel is lambeau; Cotgrave has:  'Lambeau, a shread, rag, or small piece of stuffe, or of a garment ready to fall from, or holding but little to the whole; also, a labell.'   The orig. sense is 'a small flap or lappet;' the E. lapel being a doublet.—O. H. G. lappa, M. H. G. lappe, cited by Fick as the older forms of G. lappen, 'a flap, botch, patch, rag, tatter, ear of a hound, lobe;' Flügel.  This is cognate with E. lap; see Lap (2).  Der. label, verb; Twelfth Night, i. 5. 265.  Doublets, lapel, lappet.