Reading the news

Thirteenth on this list is l’addetto stampa, glossed here as the press officer, and the word worth keeping is the first one. Addetto is a past participle meaning assigned to, and on its own it names no occupation whatever — what follows it does. L’addetto stampa handles the press, l’addetto alle vendite is the assistant in a shop, l’addetto militare is the military attaché at an embassy, gli addetti alle pulizie are the cleaning staff, and il personale addetto alla sicurezza is whoever has been put on the doors. English changes word at every one of those, and the single form it does share, « attaché », it took from French and not from Italian. Two things follow from its being a participle. It agrees, so the person who read out the note may equally be l’addetta stampa, and a shop has le addette alle vendite. And it wants its complement, so un addetto tells a reader nothing until the a behind it arrives with the work attached. Only where the place makes the work obvious may that complement drop: gli addetti sono in sciopero says the workers there, and nothing more exact.