dettaglio

Forms

dettaglio m (plural dettagli)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French détail, a noun of the 12th century formed from the verb détailler, which first meant “to cut into pieces” and then “to sell in small quantities”.^[2][3][4][5] That verb is tailler (“to cut”) with the prefix dé-.^[3][6] The French verb and tagliare both continue Late Latin taliāre (“to cut”).^[7][3]

French also had the agent noun détaillant (“retailer”) (1694), but in Italian the noun came in first and had by far the most success.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is in Lorenzo Magalotti (1698), in the sense “circumstance, particular, piece of information”.^[2] GRADIT and Nocentini date it to 1699 or shortly before, while Zingarelli gives 1653.^[4][3][8]

Semantic evolution

Through the 18th century the word spread among writers and above all among economists such as Delfico, Filangieri and Carli;^[2] Algarotti deplored it but used it all the same.^[2] The commercial sense, a small quantity of goods, appears in mercante a detaglio (1767) and in vendere al dettaglio, “to sell retail”, in a report of the Lombard finance administration (1791), though in dettaglio was then the more common phrase.^[2] By the 19th century it had also reached the southern dialects in this commercial sense.^[5]

The purists resisted it: D'Alberti's dictionary of 1797 called it a pure Gallicism that usage was beginning to establish even in educated writing, and, from Antonio Cesari on the 19th-century purists condemned the whole family;^[2] Tommaseo's dictionary still marked it as an ugly Gallicism to be avoided.^[9] It nonetheless became an everyday word, with entrare nei dettagli, to go into detail,^[10][4] and in film-making a shot that frames a single detail.^[4][11]

Timeline

• 1698 – Lorenzo Magalotti uses dettaglio for “particular, detail”.^[2]
• 1742 – Dettagliato “detailed” is recorded in Bernardo Tanucci.^[2]
• 1745 – Giuseppe Baretti uses dettagliare for “to describe in detail”.^[2]
• 1767 – Mercante a detaglio, a retail trader, is recorded.^[2]
• 1791 – Vendere al dettaglio appears in a Lombard finance report.^[2]
• 1797 – D'Alberti's dictionary calls the word a Gallicism.^[2]
• 1881 – Dettagliante “retailer” is recorded.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A detail, a small element or particular of a whole: Mi ha raccontato la serata con tutti i dettagli.^[4][11][12]
2. A detail of a work of art or of a design: Osserva i dettagli della cornice.^[4][11]
3. (cinema) A close-up shot that frames a single detail of a body or object.^[4][11][8]
4. (commerce) In al dettaglio, retail, sold in small quantities directly to the consumer, as opposed to all'ingrosso: Questo negozio vende solo al dettaglio.^[11][8][13]
5. (navy) The set of services that supply the daily life of the crew on board a warship.^[4][12][13]

Word family

• dettagliare
• dettagliato
• dettagliatamente
• dettagliante

Related words

• tagliare
• taglio
• particolare
• French détail

Usage notes

Common phrases are entrare nei dettagli, to go into detail, and in dettaglio, minutely, point by point.^[4][13][8] In the sense “particular” the word is a synonym of particolare.^[12][8]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1268
6. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
9. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
10. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
11. ^ a b c d e Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
12. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
13. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana