Metal cutting

The twenty-sixth entry is preregolazione dell’utensile, and a reader who takes the middle of it for « regulation » has walked into the widest word on the page. Regolare is a verb and an adjective at once, spelled the same. As an adjective it is « regular »: un intervallo regolare, un moto regolare. As a verb it does three separate English jobs. It brings a device to a value, which is « to set » or « to adjust »: regolare la pressione, regolare il minimo of an engine. It squares a matter, which is « to settle »: regolare i conti. And it lays down rules for something, which is « to regulate »: la legge regola la materia. The nouns divide the same way, and only one of them belongs here. La regolazione is the adjustment, the turning of a screw; il regolamento is the rule book; la regola is the rule itself. So la preregolazione dell’utensile is presetting, done on a bench before the tool ever reaches the spindle, and nothing at all is being regulated.