Largesse

November 22, 2010 1:55 AM

In a technical context, a particular variable's value can have four values. One of those values is described in the French source as 'largement décrit'. It relates to whether an adverse reaction to a drug is described much in the literature. The question is: does it mean 'widely described' (many journals touch upon it), or 'broadly described' (maybe only one journal describes it, but in broad detail)? Or is the phrase totally ambiguous? I have to provide the best translation in international English for a computer program in this specific context. The only translations of these documents that exist don't agree. The phrase rarely occurs in context, but mostly in tables of values.
posted by blue_wardrobe to Writing & Language (7 answers total)

It means "described thoroughly." It's the latter of your choices. I would translate it as "described in detail" to make sense in your context.
posted by copperbleu at 3:47 AM on November 22, 2010

I'm afraid I have to disagree - it's somewhat ambiguous but the most common meaning is "widely described." If you google the phrase, you'll find it's used in context, for example "Ce groupe est largement décrit par la presse américaine" and "largement décrit dans la littérature." These examples make it clear that the subject has been described in numerous sources rather than just one.
posted by hazyjane at 4:07 AM on November 22, 2010

The latter of your choices would be "longuement décrit."
posted by hazyjane at 4:11 AM on November 22, 2010

Best answer: It's an ambiguous term but I agree with hazyjane. Unless it says "largement décrit dans la publication XYZ", it means "widely described".
posted by elgilito at 5:12 AM on November 22, 2010

I think the difficulty is that 'broadly' in english has several subtly distinct meanings depending on context. It can be used in the sense of 'in broad terms', but it also gets used as a synonym for 'widely', which isn't at all the same thing. So when you see 'largement' translated as 'widely, largely or broadly' in a French-English dictionary, you need to ask which sense of 'broadly' they're using.

I'd agree with hazyjane that 'widely described' is the best fit.
posted by le morte de bea arthur at 6:00 AM on November 22, 2010

Response by poster: @elgilito: one of the French sources (probably the original) says "largement décrit dans le dictionnaire VIDAL ou dans un des livres de référence.". This was later shortened to simply "largement décrit", as the concept globalized. This is what made me question the situation. There is a (lesser) value which is "Described only once or twice", so it probably refers to number of occasions published rather than depth of detail.

@everyone: thanks for your input. Barring further thoughts (which are welcome!), I will use the phrase "widely described".
posted by blue_wardrobe at 6:34 AM on November 22, 2010

Hrm, the use with which I am familiar comes from multilingual Swiss law descriptions, and it pretty much always used in the sense of "explained in detailed elsewhere." It is vague, agreed. Thanks for the correction!
posted by copperbleu at 6:40 AM on November 22, 2010