undertranslate

Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word undertranslate. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word undertranslate, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say undertranslate in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word undertranslate you have here. The definition of the word undertranslate will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofundertranslate, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.

English

Etymology

under- +‎ translate

Verb

undertranslate (third-person singular simple present undertranslates, present participle undertranslating, simple past and past participle undertranslated)

  1. To translate (language) in insufficient detail, or failing to translate certain elements.
    • 1991, Peter Newmark, About Translation, Multilingual Matters, →ISBN, page 104:
      Secondly, there is a tendency to undertranslate, viz. to normalise by generalising, to understate, in all translation but particularly in literary translation.
    • 2017, Geraldine Brodie, Adapting Translation for the Stage, Taylor & Francis, →ISBN, page 45:
      Only Borell and Adam undertranslate this opener as "What brings you here, Adler?"
    • 2019, David R. Miller, Greek Pedagogy in Crisis: A Pedagogical Analysis and Assessment of New Testament Greek in Twenty-First-Century Theological Education, Wipf and Stock Publishers, →ISBN, page 185:
      I was told specifically that they were going to undertranslate differences between, say, present and aorist infinitives, because there was no agreement on how to handle the differences.