italic
[ih-tal-ik, ahy-tal-]
- designating or pertaining to a style of printing types in which the letters usually slope to the right, patterned upon a compact manuscript hand, and used for emphasis, to separate different kinds of information, etc.: These words are in italic type.
- (initial capital letter) of or relating to Italy, especially ancient Italy or its tribes.
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- Often italics. italic type.
- (initial capital letter) a branch of the Indo-European family of languages, including ancient Latin, Oscan, Umbrian, and modern Romance.
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Origin of italic
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for italics
Contemporary Examples
“The first step is to raise average (not marginal) tax rates on upper-income taxpayers,” [my italics] Hubbard wrote.
[Italics added] The slogan "Get your government off my Medicare" is ludicrous enough.
He writes (my italics): “The Prime Minister … did no more than wish him well in his bid ...” Why “did no more”?
The italics are Hoberman's, but the words would be shocking in any typeface.
Historical Examples
Vernon, when he got it, was most interested in the erasures here given in italics.
The Incomplete AmoristE. Nesbit
The italics in this and all the following quotations are my own.
The italics are ours: the satisfaction appears to be our contemporary's.
The names of the persons whom they respectively married are in italics.
Queen ElizabethJacob Abbott
I print his orders in italics, and his remarks and explanations in Roman letter.
The TeacherJacob Abbott
Italic
- a branch of the Indo-European family of languages that includes many of the ancient languages of Italy, such as Venetic and the Osco-Umbrian group, Latin, which displaced them, and the Romance languages
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- denoting, relating to, or belonging to this group of languages, esp the extinct ones
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italic
- Also: Italian of, relating to, or denoting a style of handwriting with the letters slanting to the right
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- a style of printing type modelled on this, chiefly used to indicate emphasis, a foreign word, etcCompare roman 1
- (often plural) italic type or print
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Word Origin
C16 (after an edition of Virgil (1501) printed in Venice and dedicated to Italy): from Latin Italicus of Italy, from Greek Italikos
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for italics
italic
1610s (adj.), 1670s (n.) "italic type," from Latin italicus "Italian" (see Italian); so called because it was introduced in 1501 by Aldus Manutius, printer of Venice (who also gave his name to Aldine), and first used in an edition of Virgil dedicated to Italy. Earlier (1570s) the word was used for the plain, sloping style of handwriting, as opposed to Gothic. Related: Italics.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
italics
Slanted letters that look like this: We the people. Italics are most often used to emphasize certain words, to indicate that they are in a foreign language, or to set off the title of a literary or artistic work.
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The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.