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Glossary entry

French term or phrase:

équipement de la personne

English translation:

personal accessories

Added to glossary by Tony M
Nov 13, 2009 10:11
14 yrs ago
1 viewer *
French term

équipement de la personne

French to English Marketing Business/Commerce (general) Categorizing business sectors
According to this short Wikipedia article, this is actually an official nomenclature, and I'd like to know if there's an equivalent in UK EN? The overall register of my document is fairly technical, it's a survey / analysis of the worldwide luxury goods market. One of my problems is that I need if possible the 'official' techncial term, and ideally as snappy as possible, as it is used as a recurring heading (so long-winded explanations are out!)

"L'équipement de la personne regroupe, dans la nomenclature commerciale, l'ensemble des produits permettant de fournir à une personne une parure. Il comprend les vêtements, chaussures, chapeaux, montres, etc. On l'oppose généralement à l'équipement de la maison, qui comporte des produits qui ne sont pas destinés à être sortis du foyer par l'utilisateur, notamment l'ameublement et l'électroménager."

I know that this question has been asked before on KudoZ, in the form of "équipement de la personne et de la maison", and one of the answers given then was 'personal and household goods'; however, the problem I have is that it is 'personal goods' on their own, and to my ears, that sounds decidedly awkward (almost verging on 'personal belongings')

Another translator has proposed 'personal equipment', but that sounds completely wrong to me — far too literal!

An alternative suggestion was 'personal luxury goods' — but I'm eager to avoid the use of the word 'luxury' here if at all possible, for numerous reasons to do with the wider document as a whole.

Does anyone know if any equivalent 'offiical' term even exists in EN?
Proposed translations (English)
3 +3 personal accessories
3 +3 clothing and accessories
4 personal articles
3 +1 (personal) outfit
3 personal attire
References
Clothing, Footwear & Fashion
NAF - French nomenclature
Votes to reclassify question as PRO/non-PRO:

Non-PRO (1): writeaway

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Discussion

Carol Gullidge Nov 13, 2009:
personal gear I think I must have become invisible - that was another of my suggestions!
Stephanie Ezrol Nov 13, 2009:
I have seen "personal gear" used in marketing catalogues to mean all your personal stuff, from business to leisure clothing, accessories et al. "Personal gear" is definitely not an industry wide term for such in either the UK or the US -- but you might want to consider its use, or something like that.
Philippa Smith Nov 13, 2009:
clothing and accessories Tony, I think Heloise's solution would work given the items you mention: even watches and fountain pens can be described as accessories. Granted, they'd usually be called "lifestyle accessories", which wouldn't work in your context, but the "lifestyle" bit could be taken as implicit without needing any great stretch of the imagination...
Evans (X) Nov 13, 2009:
paraphernalia yes I agree personal effects doesn't totally cover it, perhaps nothing does, except for the wonderful catch-all word "paraphernalia" which I suppose we'd have to rule out on the grounds of register in this instance!
Carol Gullidge Nov 13, 2009:
personal effects I think this is a possibility (as posted in my added note + link) although I'm not convinced that it tells the whole story. Maybe we don't in fact have an exact "official" equivalent...
Evans (X) Nov 13, 2009:
related context In insurance terminology the expression is "personal effects". Do you think you could do something with this, as it's a pretty all-embracing term?
Tony M (asker) Nov 13, 2009:
One of the problems for this translation... ...is that it has to cover such a wide range of items — from clothing, footwear, and eyewear, to cosmetics and perfume, fashion accessories, watches, and even fountain-pens. Almost all of the excellent suggestions below would sit somewhat uncomfortably with certain of the above product categories... I think I need to find an all-embracing term that gets right away from the FR expression.
Tony M (asker) Nov 13, 2009:
Getting off-topic... Ladies, thank you for your support, but please could we close this discussion here now, and if necessary, take it to a more apppropriate forum? Let's remember that this 'discussion' area is specifically intended for linguistic discussion of the question at hand only.
Carol Gullidge Nov 13, 2009:
on the other hand...! it can be quite irritating when a non-native translator asks a whole series - swathes in fact - of very basic dictionary questions, apparently asking peers to do the whole translation for them, and I for one have been guilty of down-voting some of these! Again, this seems to be far more frequent on the ES>EN side.

But this is by no means what we're talking about here. Of course!
Evans (X) Nov 13, 2009:
Agree with Carol Until recently I had non-Pro questions filtered out and didn't realise why several quite interesting questions I was considering suddenly disappeared. Since I realised why, I have changed my settings to allow easy questions through. There is often much greater complexity to what might on the face of it appear to be an easy question.
Carol Gullidge Nov 13, 2009:
Pro/Non-Pro There seems to be a trend towards downgrading questions without actually looking at their complexity and without any apparent thought for the negative impact that this has on the potential diversity and quality of the answers provided, as many ProZers have Non-pro questions filtered out.
It's strange, but this seems to happen so much more frequently in the FR>EN side than the ES>EN side, where it's extremely rare to see any question downgraded - even the most basic ones!
Philippa Smith Nov 13, 2009:
agree with Tony, it's not a non-Pro question at all, it involves a lot of research and some knowledge of the retail industry and business in general. It's one of those very tricky terms that looks deceptively simple but actually causes a major headache!
Tony M (asker) Nov 13, 2009:
To Pro or not to Pro? I take on board the vote for this to be a non-pro question, and in terms of everday language, I would certainly agree; however, in this particular instance, I am specifically seeking the technical term used in the retailing industry, and so I consider that the answer I require is of Pro status.

Proposed translations

+3
9 mins
Selected

personal accessories

I don't know of an official term, I'm afraid, but this might help?

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 13 mins (2009-11-13 10:24:33 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

or even just "clothing and accessories" because the person is understood

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 33 mins (2009-11-13 10:44:54 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

what about "clothing, accessories and personal items" then?
Note from asker:
Thanks, Gilla! <br><br>One of the problems I have is that this is a broad category that already includes within it 'fashion' and 'accessoires' — but also perfume, fountain pens, and other more distantly-related goods.
Peer comment(s):
agree Héloïse Ki (X) : Sorry - didn't see you'd added your comment, which is the same as mine!
7 mins
thanks Heloise, great minds think alike!
agree Chris Hall : Absolutely!
12 mins
thanks Chris
neutral Rob Grayson : Clothes are more than accessories // Sorry, I didn't see your second answer. My response was disagreeing with your original answer.
17 mins
I don't understand your objection. My second suggestion includes both.
agree Verginia Ophof
4 hrs
thanks Verginia
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Thanks; in the end, this is the solution I went for — albeit still with some reservations — and which was validated by the customer. Many thanks to all the others too for you valued contributions!"
+3
14 mins

clothing and accessories

I am not aware of an official term, but maybe this would cover it?
Note from asker:
Thanks, Heloise! One of the problems I have is that this is a broad category that already includes within it 'clothing' and 'accessoires' — but also perfume, fountain pens, and other more distantly-related goods.
Peer comment(s):
agree Amy Cheshire
10 mins
thanks
agree Chris Hall
13 mins
Thanks
agree Philippa Smith
13 mins
Thanks
Something went wrong...
20 mins

personal attire

or even accoutrements though that is just the accessories part

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 21 mins (2009-11-13 10:32:44 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

another word - trappings
Something went wrong...
52 mins

personal articles

This is used on insurance policies, of course.

Here it is in the Webster-Mirriam Visual Dictionary:

CLOTHING & ARTICLES :: PERSONAL ARTICLES images - Visual ...
PERSONAL ARTICLES. Range of articles and accessories belonging to an individual .... The shape, price and materials of these personal articles vary widely ...
http://visual.merriam-webster.com/clothing-articles/personal...
Something went wrong...
+1
10 mins

(personal) outfit

is the nearest I can get, meaning clothing, accessories, etc, and not personal effects.

It's a pity that "trousseau" is so limited in its usage!!

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 47 mins (2009-11-13 10:58:54 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------


I agree that it does sound odd as a category of goods. In fact, it's beginning to sound like personal effects after all!

Privately owned items, such as keys, an identification card, or a wallet or watch, that are regularly worn or carried on one's person http://www.answers.com/topic/personal-effects

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 2 hrs (2009-11-13 12:30:33 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------



PERSONAL GEAR

covers a multitude of sins (although I'm not sure that perfume wd come under that category - but on the other hand...), and is pretty close to the original
Note from asker:
Thanks, Carol! I somehow find it odd, though when used as a category of goods. 'Personal outfitting' might work, perhaps (and cf. 'gentlemen's outfitter')
Peer comment(s):
agree Stephanie Ezrol : Sorry Carol, I missed it.
17 hrs
no problem Stephanie - many thanks!
Something went wrong...

Reference comments

27 mins
Reference:

Clothing, Footwear & Fashion

This is the category name used on this website, UK Trade & Investment (UK Trade & Investment is the Government organisation that helps UK-based companies succeed in an increasingly global economy). Sounds fairly official, and certainly covers your context, but it's not exactly snappy!
Reference:

https://www.uktradeinvest.gov.uk/ukti/appmanager/ukti/sectors?_nfls=false&_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=SectorType1&navigationPageId=/clothing

Something went wrong...
16 hrs
Reference:

NAF - French nomenclature

Tony,
Il semble que la nomenclature des activités françaises (NAF) n'inclue pas "officiellement" les stylos / parfums etc dans la catégorie de l'équipement de la personne - les parfums, en particulier, sont classés dans les activités "hygiène et santé"

v. p. ex. http://www.paris.pref.gouv.fr/sdc/sommaire/2eme partie/1.htm...
http://www.mairie-martigues.fr/vie_economique/fichiers/donne...
http://www.rouen.cci.fr/cdedoc/bulletin_thematique/bulletin_...

Si cela sonne bien en anglais, les propositions de Gilla et d'Héloise ("Clothing & accessories") complétée par "cosmetics" me semble assez fidèle (et relativement courte), non?

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Note added at 16 hrs (2009-11-14 02:40:58 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

oups,
...la proposition de Gilla et d'Héloise...
Something went wrong...
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