Contract and official language

The thirty-third entry is perfezionare un atto, and it is the trap of this list for an English reader, because the word that looks like the answer is the one that will mislead. Perfezionare in a legal text means to complete: to take the last step that brings a transaction into existence. Il contratto si perfeziona con l’accettazione says that the contract comes into being when the acceptance arrives, not that the acceptance improves it. Nothing is being polished. « To perfect » in ordinary English is exactly that polishing, bringing something nearer to faultlessness, and a deed the notary has just witnessed is neither faulty nor flawless: it is simply now in force. The plain renderings are « to complete », « to execute » and « to conclude ». One corner of English does use « to perfect » technically, and it is worth knowing so it is not mistaken for this: a lender « perfects » a security interest, meaning that it takes the registration step which makes the security good against other creditors. That is one narrow procedure, not the general word Italian uses for every contract that has just come alive.