Login or register (free and only takes a few minutes) to participate in this question.
You will also have access to many other tools and opportunities designed for those who have language-related jobs (or are passionate about them). Participation is free and the site has a strict confidentiality policy.
The asker opted for community grading. The question was closed on 2010-06-11 10:54:12 based on peer agreement (or, if there were too few peer comments, asker preference.)
French to English translations [Non-PRO] Medical - Medical: Instruments / Packaging standards
French term or phrase:Malveillance
I am translating a risk management report on a product. One of the categories for errors which may arise with the product includes "Malveillance".
I have translated it as "Negligence", but want to make sure that this is correct.
Thank you once again, Lianne. The second my colleague and I saw your suggestion we knew it fit what we needed.
For more information, it was a sheet about possible type of damage which may occur to a product in shipping, production, or storage, before it arrives on the store shelves. We had initially thought "negligence", as the next column spoke of better employee monitoring and training, but "tampering" was much better, given that it means the employee was deliberately creating some sort of error in the product (with ill will), and therefore more surveillance was necessary
Of course, 'malveillance' is directly translated as 'malice' or 'ill will', everyone knows that. But the Asker was apparently not happy with those translations. Since she's the only one (unfortunately) who knows her own context, I'd say she's the only one who can judge which word fits her text best. It may not be a literal translation, we all know that, but apparently it works for her.
Of course, I agree that it isn't a direct translation of 'malveilance', but if she'd wanted that she could have gone to the dictionary. I just gave her another suggestion, just as something to think about. Apparently, she liked it. It's not word-perfect but it's good enough for her so I consider it to have helped someone out. That's all I'm here for, after all.
The fact that the word "tampering" is used in various medical risk assessments would only be relevant if it were a correct, accurate translation of the word "malveillance", which I (and the dictionary) hold not to be the case.
I agree with everyone asking for more context. I don't think my suggestion of 'tampering' is entirely out there, after all it has definitely been used in several medical risk assessments, but it certainly won't fit every case! It only applies to certain contexts. We could do with more information.
just kidding - it does have a trivial ring to it though - deliberate tampering is a common expression - deliberate tampering with the packaging/contents etc. Tamper-free packaging...
But as you rightly say, is this what is meant by the enigmatic "malveillance" in question?
I think it would be awfully helpful to know a bit more about this heading; in particular, do you have any examples of the kind of risks that they include under it? That would almost certainly help to pin it down...
@ SJLD:
I honestly don't think that 'tampering' sounds "silly" — it could be right, but may well be too specific for the particular context:
I think that is a serious mistranslation as it means specific physical alteration of the packaging and/or contents. Drmanu's suggestion of "harmful intent" is, in my view the best translation.
As this is a heading, "Malveillance" may mean "Actes de malveillance", in which case I would suggest "Malicious acts" (depends what the other category names are in your list, maybe you could give us a few?). "Malicious intent" (as already suggested by Chris) and "malicious acts" are the terms I have most often met with in similar contexts.
The translation workplace 
peer agreement (net): +5
