METM24 presentation

MedLexic: an EN-FR dictionary for biomedical language professionals

Jorge Esteban Casas, Lyon, France

Currently available English-French biomedical dictionaries are burdened with a variety of shortcomings. Some are merely compilations of equivalences that do not provide the necessary context to properly understand each different meaning, while others make excessive use of loan words or calques. The greatest problem, however, is that these resources are aimed solely at health professionals and assume the user has very advanced biomedical knowledge. Using such dictionaries can therefore be challenging for many language professionals working with English and French, even those who specialise in biomedical sciences.

To alleviate this problem, Cosnautas has created a new English-French language resource: MedLexic (Dictionnaire anglais-français de médecine et des sciences connexes). This dictionary is aimed specifically at biomedical language professionals who interpret, translate, or write medical texts in English-French. Compared with previous resources, MedLexic provides numerous details that assist the user in accurately translating problematic terminology. It provides clear and authoritative explanations of the different meanings of polysemous terms, includes cross-references to related lemmas, and recommends or advises against particular translations. In addition, it offers the user insights on translation and medicine-related content.

In this talk, I will introduce attendees to MedLexic and its uses. I will show how to navigate the dictionary’s search engine and demonstrate how some of its entries can help to solve terminology problems resulting from polysemy, calques, false friends, and so on.

This presentation will be of interest to English-French language or healthcare professionals interested in understanding, writing, or translating biomedical texts in an accurate, neutral, and objective manner.

I work for Cosnautas on a freelance basis, so I may not be the most impartial person to present this tool. However, I am also a biomedical translator and use the Cosnautas resources regularly, so I have a good understanding of how to navigate them in order to solve terminology problems.

About the presenter

Prior to earning a master’s degree in biomedical translation and interpreting, Jorge Esteban Casas graduated in international relations and French from the University of Leicester. For over two decades, he worked in customer service and business development operations in a number of industries, including clinical diagnostics and clinical research, in Spain, the UK, Italy, France, and Switzerland. In 2023 Jorge became a full-time biomedical translator and interpreter. He also edits and creates biomedical translation-related content for Cosnautas.