sottotitolo Italian · revision 38969

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=compound, calque|attested=1878, Arcangelo Ghisleri}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * /sot.toˈti.to.lo/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''sottotitolo''' ''m'' (plural sottotitoli)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[af|it|sotto-|titolo|t2=title]].^(Nocentini 2010)^(GRADIT 2003)^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(Devoto 1968)^(Wiktionary) DELI takes it as modelled on [[en|subtitle]], used of books from 1825 and of films from 1909.^(DELI 1999)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ GRADIT dates the word to 1878, in a text of Arcangelo Ghisleri in Napoleone Colajanni's ''Democrazia e socialismo''; in a passage GDLI quotes, Ghisleri asks for headings for the parts of a long work to replace the ''continua'' (“to be continued”) notes; there the word means the title of a section of a text.^(GRADIT 2003)^(GDLI) DELI's first record is from 1912, in an article by E. Perego, ''Titoli e sottotitoli'', in a film magazine.^(DELI 1999)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ In the late 19th and early 20th century the word was used of books and newspapers: a secondary title that explains or extends the main one, and the title of a subdivision of a text;^(GDLI)^(GRADIT 2003) Pascoli wrote of a long poem with a title and several ''sottotitoli'' in the text.^(GDLI)^(GRADIT 2003) With the cinema it came to mean the captions shown on the screen, which in silent films carried the dialogue.^(DELI 1999)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026) Today it is mostly used in the plural for the translation of the dialogue printed at the bottom of the picture in films and television programmes shown in the original language, and for captions for the deaf.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026) The verb ''sottotitolare'' and the noun ''sottotitolazione'' followed.^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 1825 – English ''subtitle'' is used of books.^(DELI 1999)

+ * 1878 – Arcangelo Ghisleri uses ''sottotitolo''.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Zingarelli 2010)

+ * 1909 – English ''subtitle'' is used of films.^(DELI 1999)

+ * 1912 – ''Titoli e sottotitoli'' appears in a film magazine.^(DELI 1999)^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # [[m|en|subtitle]]: a secondary title that explains or extends the main title of a book or a newspaper article.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)^(Wiktionary)

+ # ''(printing, journalism)'' A short heading in smaller type set within the text of an article; the title of a subdivision of a text.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(Treccani 2011)

+ # ''(cinema, television, usually plural)'' [[m|en|caption|alt=Captions]] shown at the bottom of the screen, translating the dialogue or making it readable for the deaf: ''Preferisco vedere i film in lingua originale con i sottotitoli.''^(GRADIT 2003)^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[sottotitolare]]

+ * [[sottotitolazione]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[titolo]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}