detail
Definitions
General English
- noun a small piece of information
General Science
- verb to list all the items or aspects possible
Aviation
- noun the important and less important facts about something
Commerce
- noun a small part of a description
- noun the temporary assignment of an employee to a different position for a specified time
- verb to give someone a temporary assignment
Construction
- A large-scale architectural or engineering drawing indicating specific configurations and dimensionsof construction elements. If the large-scale drawing differs from the general drawing, it is the architect's or engineer's intention that the large-scale drawing be used to clarify the general drawing.
Information & Library Science
- verb to list or give full information about things
Military
- noun one of several items of information which relate to the same subject
- noun part of a diagram, photograph or picture which is magnified for closer examination
- noun a small detachment of soldiers assigned to carry out a specific task
- noun a written order or instruction
- verb to assign a soldier or unit to a specific task
Real Estate
- noun a small element of the structure of a building, considered separately
Origin & History of “detail”
Etymologically, a detail is a ‘little piece cut off’. It comes from French détail, a derivative of détailler ‘cut up’. this was a compound verb formed from the intensive prefix dé- and tailler ‘cut’ (a relative of English tailor and tally). English acquired the word via the French phrase en détail ‘piece by piece, item by item’, source of the central modern meaning ‘individual item, particular’.
