Elsewhere: Computing in Cloud

In a splendid article for The Wall Street Journal, Max Colchestershed light on the pitfalls associated with France’s efforts to ensure that English terms do not encroach on the French language:

The word on the table that morning was “cloud computing.”

To translate the English term for computing resources that can be accessed on demand on the Internet, a group of French experts had spent 18 months coming up with “informatique en nuage,” which literally means “computing in cloud.”

France’s General Commission of Terminology and Neology – a 17-member group of professors, linguists, scientists and a former ambassador – was gathered in a building overlooking the Louvre to approve the term. …

The committee charged with translating cloud computing had considered a variety of alternatives to “informatique en nuage,” before their meeting with the Terminology and Neology Commission. According to Colchester:

The problem was the word “cloud.” In French, to be “dans les nuages” – or in the clouds – is a common expression meaning to be distracted. So, committee members were wary of using the word “nuage.” One would not want to have his head in the clouds. …

However, an alternative could not be agreed and so, despite their reservations, they proposed “informatique en nuage.” (The Terminology and Neology Commission rejected the proposal. One Commission member exclaimed: “What? This means nothing to me. I put a ‘cloud’ of milk in my tea!”)

Noting that “for years, French bureaucrats have worked hard to keep French up to date by diligently coming up with equivalents for English terms,” Colchester gave a number of examples, along with their literal translations:

Big air (when snowboarding) | saut acrobatique sur tremplin de neige (acrobatic jump on a springboard of snow)

Brainstorming | remue-méninges (brain-stirring)

Frisbee | disque-volant (flying disc)

Surfer | aquaplanchiste (water boarder)

Weekend | fin de semaine (end of the week)

World Wide Web | toile d’araignée mondiale (global spider web)