The English "title" bears traces of various Latin meanings of titulus in interesting ways, not least when the term is employed in connection with literary works.
The Oxford English Dictionary tells us that the Lindisfarne Gospel employs titulus to signify the words on the board placed above the crucified Jesus. The King James translation of the New Testament renders the word in John as "title." In Matthew it is "accusation," in Luke "superscription," in Mark "superscription of his accusation." Later translators have supplied "sign," "charge," or simply "inscription" or the synecdochic "sign board."
These translations provide us with a number, but not by any means all, of the historical usages of the English word "title." Among the many of these are: an inscription placed above an object, giving its name or describing it; sometimes a placard hung in a theater giving the name of a piece; an inscribed pillar, column, tombstone, or the like; the descriptive heading of each section or subdivision of a book; the formal heading of a legal document; a document, a letter, a writing (all obsolete); the name of a book, poem, or other composition; an inscription at the beginning of a book describing or indicating its subject, contents, or nature, and usually also giving the name of the author, compiler, editor, publisher, and the place and date of publication; title-page; the designation of a picture or statue; in bookbinding, the label or panel on the back of a book; a descriptive or distinctive appellation; a name, denomination, or style; an appellation attaching to an individual or family in virtue of rank, function, office, or attainment, or the possession of or association with certain lands; an appellation of honor pertaining to a person of high rank; that which justifies or substantiates a claim; an alleged or recognized right; a specifically legal right to the possession of property; the evidence of such right; a title deed.
To "entitle" has been to furnish a literary work or part of a work with a heading; to inscribe; to dedicate to someone; to prefix the name of an author to; to bestow to a person a certain title; to furnish with title to an estate; to invest with an office; to qualify; to assign possession of.
[...]
[John Fisher's] thesis is as follows:
While titles are names, they are a good deal more than just names. They are not necessarily descriptions, although they can contain descriptive elements. They are names for a purpose, not merely for the purpose of identification and designation, in spite of the important practical role which indexical names play in the designative process. The unique purpose of titling is hermeneutical; titles are names which function as guides to interpretation.
āHazard Adams, "Titles, Titling, and Entitlement to," The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Vol. 46, No. 1 (Autumn, 1987)
