tag, label; etiquette, prescribed behavior
“Selon nous, il n’y a pas, sur le globe terraqué, plus d’un cent d’individus par siècle (et encore !) capables de lire quoi que ce soit, voire des étiquettes de pots à moutarde.” — In our opinion, on the whole terraqueous globe, there are not more than a hundred individuals in every century (if that) capable of reading anything at all, even labels on mustard-pots.
Inherited from Middle French estiquette (“ticket, memorandum”), from Old French estiquette, from Old French estechier, estichier, estequier, estiquer (“to attach, stick”), (compare Picard estiquier (“to stick, pierce”)), from Frankish *stekan, *stikkan, *stikjan (“to stick, pierce, sting”), from Proto-Germanic *stikaną, *stikōną, *staikijaną (“to be sharp, pierce, prick”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)tig-, *(s)teyg- (“to be sharp, to stab, to goad, to puncture”). Akin to Old High German stehhan