Ethics and morality

Il merito is the entry an English reader will think is free, because « merit » is standing right there. It is free in one direction only. Il merito does mean desert, the credit somebody has earned: non tutto quello che riesce è merito, and per merito di means thanks to somebody. But the commonest use of the noun in written Italian has nothing to do with deserving anything at all. Il merito is also the substance of a matter, what is actually at issue as against the way it is being handled. Entrare nel merito is to go into the substance; nel merito ha ragione says that on the point itself he is right; a court that rules nel merito has ruled on the question and not on the procedure. From that sense comes in merito a, a plain preposition meaning « regarding », which turns up in any letter. English keeps a trace of this in the lawyer’s phrase about the merits of a case, and nowhere else. A reader who carries « merit » across every time will hear praise in sentences that are only pointing at the topic.