Im Lateinischen heißt es "ebenso" oder "dergleichen", das wurde auf Listen und Verzeichnissen wohl für Posten benutzt, die dem vorigen entsprachen, und daraus wurde dann offenbar im Laufe der Zeit ein Wort für die Dinge auf der Liste selbst.
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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.[/color]
(
Quelle).
