technicalia

English

Etymology

By surface analysis, technical +‎ -ia (“a collection of things”). Evidently modelled after other nouns descended from substantivized Latin -ālis adjectives in the neuter plural: marginalia, paraphernalia, generalia, regalia, militaria, etc.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ˌtɛknɪˈkeɪli.ə/

Noun

technicalia pl (plural only)

Technical details, especially ones that are tedious or esoteric; technicalities.
- 1995, Philip Kitcher, The Advancement of Science: Science without Legend, Objectivity without Illusions, Oxford: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 210:
  Copernicus himself made few observations but was steeped both in the technicalia of astronomical geometry and in the humanistic tradition.
- 2001, Eric S. Raymond, The Cathedral and the Bazaar: Musings on Linux and Open Source by an Accidental Revolutionary, Revised edition, CA: O’Reilly, →ISBN, page 39:
  If you don’t care about the technicalia of Internet mail, the next two paragraphs can be safely skipped.
- 2004, John D. Dunne, Foundations of Dharmakīrti's Philosophy, MA: Wisdom Publications, →ISBN, page 13:
  […] the notes often contain extended, technical arguments. Other readers may also find the notes of considerable interest, but I would suggest that if the annotative technicalia prove tiresome, the argument in the body of the text may remain both intelligible and useful, even if the notes are not consulted.
- 2007, Calum Paton, “The Politics of NHS Deficits and NHS Re-form”, in Alison Han, editor, Health policy and politics, Hampshire: Ashgate, →ISBN, page 18:
  Yet in explaining deficits, the Audit Commission (AC) (2006) sought refuge in a narrow range of technicalia about the processes of budget-setting, on the one hand, and bland homilies about the nature of Boards, on the other.
Technical language; jargon.
- 1981, Michael McCormick, “Greek Hagiography and Popular Latin in Late Antiquity: The Case of *Biberaticum-βιβερατικόν”, in The American Journal of Philology, volume 102, number 2, →DOI, page 157:
  […] though much of the Latin loan material consists of military or governmental technicalia, there exists, in addition, a considerable stratum which provides insight into the lexical equipment of the more popular levels of society.
- 1997, Donald E. Theall, James Joyce's Techno-Poetics, University of Toronto Press, →DOI, page 107:
  The technicalia underlying the description – such as the floodlights, the 'fluorescent', the 'spectrem', the prism, the multi-dimensionality, the reference to arteriosclerosis ('arthurious clayroses') – contextualize it within modern techno-culture.
- 2015 August 13, Damion Searls, “Burgers and Copters, Shelves and Pants”, in The Paris Review‎^[1], archived from the original on 2017-07-05:
  Unusually for such technicalia, rebracketing is a good, solid English word, not Latin or Greek.

Related terms

technicality