David Woolley wrote:

>>1. It would stop people misusing it to italicize titles where nothing
> 
> ** is cited. Example:
> 
> My impression is that the origins of cite were to cover those cases
> that are conventially italicised in typeset material.

http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-html/1995Jul/0092.html  :
  |
  |  CITE is not for quotes or excerpts, but rather for titles of
  |  cited works, ala:
  |
  |	"It was the best of times; it was the worst of times,"
  |	wrote Dickens in <cite>A Tale of Two Cities</cite>.

~fantasai