italic

adjective2

1. •
   Designed to resemble a handwriting style developed in Italy in the 16th century.
2. •
   Having letters that slant or lean to the right; oblique.

   • The text was impossible to read: every other word was underlined or in a bold or italic font.

noun2

1. •
   A typeface in which the letters slant to the right.

   • Names of vessels, as the Kearsarge or the Alabama, are frequently put in italic. — 1902
2. •
   An oblique handwriting style, such as used by Italian calligraphers of the Renaissance.

   • Spenser uses two different scripts: an Elizabethan secretary hand for English texts, and an italic 'mixed' with secretary graphs for Latin texts […] — 1990

adjective4

1. •
   Of or relating to the Italian peninsula.
2. •
   Pertaining to a subfamily of the Centum branch of the Indo-European language family, that includes Latin and other languages (as Oscan, Umbrian) spoken by the peoples of ancient Italy
3. •
   (old-fashioned) Osco-Umbrian; an extinct branch of such language family, which excludes the Latino-Faliscan languages

   • The ancient Italic languages that are now extinct include Oscan, Umbrian, and South Picene.
4. •
   (historical) Pertaining to various peoples that lived in Italy before the establishment of the Roman Empire, or to any of several alphabet systems used by those peoples.

   • There were several Italic alphabets, one being the Etruscan alphabet.