At the restaurant

The list opens with prenotare un tavolo, and the verb is worth taking apart before the table is even laid. Prenotare is built on Latin praenotare, from prae, before, and notare, to mark or note down: to put something on record ahead of time. The noun goes everywhere with it — la prenotazione is what you hold for a train, a hotel room, a doctor and a table. English reached for a different object on the same desk. The everyday verb in Britain is « to book », and it means exactly what it says: the name went into the book, the ledger kept by the door, and out of that entry come « a booking », « fully booked » and « booked up ». So both languages named the writing rather than the holding, one with a note and one with a ledger. The verb that does name the holding is « to reserve », from re- and servare, to keep back — and Italian keeps riservare for precisely that job: riservato is the little card standing on a table that nobody else may take.