The mdwlist package provides:
– a means of building description-like lists, to your specification,
– a macro to generate a “compact” version of an existing list, and
– a method of suspending and resuming a list, so as to interject some “body” text into a list (typically, an enumerated list).

The package is part of the mdwtools bundle; a more modern implementation of its facilities is available in enumitem package, which is to be preferred for new work.

The author is Mark Wooding. The package is Copyright © 1996 Mark Wooding.