Re: luminous vs. light as adjectives

[Robert Bononno <bononno -at- ACF2 -dot- NYU -dot- EDU>]

Stan,

Thanks for your reply. I have the Robert I and II and a few hundred other
technical dictionaries at hand. I'm a F/E tech translator. The problem is
not really finding the meaning for these adj's in Fr, but in trying to
discover if there is any way to consistently translate the term
"lumineux" into English. Sometimes it's translated as luminous and
sometimes as light. I was wondering if there was anything inherent in our
usage of these words that would help distinguish between them.

Robert


On Fri, 11 Feb 1994, Stan Andermann wrote:

> Using the Petit Robert I--a much better authority than
> LaRousse or any other French-English dictionary--which
> is totally in French, I find some interesting words
> which might help this problem.

> First, consider the related words
>         luminescent-adj.  O:u (<--ignore this error)
>          Ou" se produit le phenomene de la
>          luminescence V. Fluorescent, phosphorescent
>          "Tues (<--another mistake) "Tubes luminescents
>          servant a l'eclairage.

>         lumineuse, lumineux -adj.
>         1. qui emit ou reflechit la lumiere.
>         2. de la nature de la lumiere
>         3. qui a beaucoup de clarte, de
>         lucidite.

> These are adjectives.  To add to the confusion,
> consider the nouns
>         :. luminaire
>         2. luminance
>         3. luminescence
> and others.

> If you don't have a French only dictionary, it's
> essential.  The Petit Robert I is the best.  (The
> Petit Robert II is a single volume encyclopedia and
> also worth it.)  PRI is a small font, double column
> 2171 book.  It will answer every question you need,
> and probably more.

> The _real_ problem is that French as a language
> doesn't handle some aspects of cummunication (<--
> whoops, that's a error, Dr. Freud!) communication
> such as science and positions.

> Good luck! Bonne chance!