acte de nature regalienne

English translation: a noble deed

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)

French term or phrase:	acte de nature regalienne
English translation:	a noble deed
Entered by:	awilliams

09:29 Jan 10, 2003

French to English translations [Non-PRO]

French term or phrase: acte de nature regalienne

act of generosity?

awilliams KudoZ activity Questions: 156 (1 open) (7 closed without grading) Answers: 513 United Kingdom
Local time: 16:05

Act of noble deeds

Explanation:
Act of noble deeds
(another way to put it)

Selected response from:

Ioana Bostan
Local time: 18:05

Grading comment

Will go for "a noble deed". Thank you for your answers - apologies again for lack of context to begin with.
All the best
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

Summary of answers provided

4 +5

Act of noble deeds

Ioana Bostan

4 +3

ragalian act, act of regalian nature

Francis MARC

4 +2

Act of generosity

Diana Donzelli-Gaudet

highest (state) authority's acts (deeds , rights, decisions) or prerogatives (for acts)

cjohnstone

Comment

Nikki Scott-Despaigne

ex gratia act

Lanna Castellano

kingly act (OR kingly deed)

Peter McCavana

kingly act

Peter McCavana

noblesse oblige ??

Rachel Vanarsdall

Discussion entries: 1

Answers

2 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +2

Act of generosity

Explanation:
I would say like you...!

Diana Donzelli-Gaudet
Local time: 17:05
Native speaker of:

Italian,

French
PRO pts in pair: 68

8 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +3

ragalian act, act of regalian nature

Explanation:
Définition (Larousse) : se dit d'un droit rattaché à la royauté, ou qui manifeste une survivance des anciennes prérogatives royales (comme le droit de grâce du Président de la république en france)
appelé aussi droit du prince

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Note added at 2003-01-10 09:38:32 (GMT)
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... which had evolved over thousands of years, that the Regalian doctrine swept ... likewise require a similarly complex solution as befits the complexity of nature. ...
mail.sarai.net/pipermail/solaris/ 2002-September/000358.html - 21k

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Note added at 2003-01-10 12:30:50 (GMT)
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***I disagree with some of the other answers as it is not always \"noble\" and \"généreux\", in fact specially in past it was often just an act of omnipotence (over the justice).

Francis MARC
Lithuania
Local time: 18:05
Native speaker of:

French
PRO pts in pair: 6500

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)

agree

Katia Xenophontos (X): en effet.

6 mins

agree

hirselina: http://machaut.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/WEBSTER.page.sh?PAGE=120...

31 mins

agree

EDLING (X)

36 mins

neutral

Nikki Scott-Despaigne: Yes, this does work, but unfortunately, it would be used only very exceptionally indeed in English. Perhaps fuller context for the level of language woudl help. It is more common in French than in English. Not wrong, but not sure it's appropriate.

1 hr

neutral

Peter Coles: I agree with Nikki. Although the phrase exists in English, its use is extremely rare and would not be understand by most anglophones.

2 hrs

-> It is also very rare in french, most of the readers don't understand it, but the writer of the text put it intentionnally and I think a translator should respect that

9 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +5

Act of noble deeds

Explanation:
Act of noble deeds
(another way to put it)

Ioana Bostan
Local time: 18:05
Native speaker of: Romanian
PRO pts in pair: 5

Grading comment

Will go for "a noble deed". Thank you for your answers - apologies again for lack of context to begin with.
All the best

35 mins confidence:

ex gratia act

Explanation:
. . unless it is "acte" in the sense of an instrument. Regalian and kingly or other references to the royal nature may or may not be apt, depending on the context!

Lanna Castellano
Local time: 16:05
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in pair: 377

2 hrs confidence:

kingly act (OR kingly deed)

Explanation:
régalien adj. = qui apparient à la royauté = kingly (among other things)
pouvoir régalien = sovereign power [autocratic power to make decisions unilaterally]
secteurs régaliens = sovereign sectors [in which an authority has autocratic power to make decisions unilaterally]

Regalian act or act of regalian nature are much too obscure in English.
I don’t know if “acte de nature regalienne” necessarily means “act of generosity”, “act of noble deeds or “noble deed”.
As far as I know, an “acte de nature regalienne” is a sovereign, autocratic act/action/deed, which may be generous or noble, but may also be the opposite. Perhaps, in normal usage, it normally implies a generous or noble act/deed, but can anyone affirm that this is the _only_ meaning?

In any case, “kingly act” (or kingly deed) would conveniently cover many possibilities.

NOTE:
I agree that MORE CONTEXT would help a lot.
When asking a question, could “Askers” please try to put themselves in the position of the “Answerers”? It would save all of us wasting too much time looking in the wrong directions and trying to make educated guesses without the help of context or other clues.
If askers don’t take the time to provide context and/or other clues, why should answerers take the time to look for answers?!

Peter McCavana
France
Local time: 17:05
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in pair: 100

4 hrs confidence:

highest (state) authority's acts (deeds , rights, decisions) or prerogatives (for acts)

Explanation:
(j'ai lu et apprécié tous les autres compmentaires et propositions), pour s'en sortir je crois qu'on est d'accord qu'il s'agit de prérogatives des autorités les plus hautes des états (monarchies ou pas) et que ces prérogatives ont pour caractéristique d'échapper à la fois aux lois en vigueur (sans les conterdire mais sans y être assujetties non plus) et aux hiérarchies habituelles. Selon que la connotation est négative ou factuelle, I would venture what's above (if not negative) and would keep "regalian" if negative in the text

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Note added at 2003-01-10 14:04:27 (GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

if negative in connotation, I would quite see regalian \"privilege\" to emphasize the abnormal side of it

cjohnstone
France
Local time: 17:05
Native speaker of:

French,

English
PRO pts in pair: 1632

4 hrs confidence:

kingly act

Explanation:
NB: I already sent a slightly different answer quite a long time ago. It has since disappeared. Are the moderators editing it?

acte de nature régalienne : kingly act (OR kingly deed);
régalien adj. = qui apparient à la royauté : kingly (among other things);
pouvoir régalien : sovereign power [autocratic power to make decisions unilaterally]

Regalian act or act of regalian nature are much too obscure in English.
I don’t know if “acte de nature regalienne” necessarily means “act of generosity”, “act of noble deeds or “noble deed”.
As far as I know, an “acte de nature regalienne” is a sovereign, autocratic act/action/deed, which may be generous or noble, but may also be the opposite. Perhaps, in normal usage, it normally implies a generous or noble act/deed, but can anyone affirm that this is the _only_ meaning?

In any case, “kingly act” (or kingly deed) would conveniently cover many possibilities.

MORE CONTEXT would help a lot. Any translator should realize how useful and necessary context is.
If "Askers" want us to take the time to help them, they should take the time to help us to help them...

Peter McCavana
France
Local time: 17:05
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in pair: 100

5 hrs confidence:

noblesse oblige ??

Explanation:
OK I'm just guessing here, but since your suggestion was "act of generosity" I'm assuming we're talking about kingly/noble folks showing generosity to others.... sorry to translate French into French!

Rachel Vanarsdall
Local time: 11:05
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in pair: 140

7 hrs confidence:

Comment

Explanation:
Thank you for the extra context Amy. Context is what translation is all about of course and as a rule, the more the better.

For all your text is highly confidential , I suspect that you might never the less be to post an extract including your term. Edit bits out, swop names round and so on, if need be. Otherwise, from the background provided, the suggestions you have - noble deed, act of generosity, ex gratia act - must be coming close to what you need. The final choice is down to you. You have the orignal of course, but no assessment of register or style can really be made by those putting forward suggestions, without information of that order, which is honestly best provided in posting an albeit edited extract.

And you are right, it is sometimes one of the apparently straightforward terms which turns out to be most difficult! In this case, without any indication of style, register etc the potential usefulness of sugegstions is going to be at best restricted, and at worst a fair ol' bit of guesswork!

Nikki Scott-Despaigne (with her moderator's hat on).

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Note added at 2003-01-10 17:07:14 (GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

\"might never the less THINK ABOUT POSTING an extract including your term...\"

\"origInal\"

Nikki Scott-Despaigne
Local time: 17:05
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in pair: 4638

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English translation: a noble deed

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