At the doctor’s and the chemist’s

Towards the end of the list sits il foglietto illustrativo, the leaflet folded inside a medicine box, and an English reader who trusts the adjective will expect pictures. There are none. Illustrare in Italian is first of all to set something out in words: illustrare un progetto is to explain a plan to a meeting, illustrare i motivi is to give the reasons, and a guide who illustra a painting is talking, not drawing. The sense of putting images on a page exists as well, but it is the second job rather than the first. English took the same Latin verb illustrare, to light up, and let it settle into two narrower places: « to illustrate » a book means to add pictures to it, and « illustrative » means serving as an example, as in « an illustrative case ». Neither reading fits the paper in the box, which is why English does not translate the phrase at all but renames the thing: on a British packet it is the « patient information leaflet ». One adjective, two languages, and only one of them still lets it mean, quite simply, explained.