bill

Bill comes from Middle English bille, borrowed from Anglo-Norman bille, itself from Old French bulle, which traces back to Medieval Latin bulla, meaning a seal or sealed document.

The word began by referring to the sealed document itself, and that sense of an official written record carried forward into the modern uses for invoices, legislative proposals, and lists.

Bill is a doublet of bull, as in a papal bull, and of bulla — all three descend from the same Latin word for a seal.