# trombinoscope



## Carole1981

Bonjour,

Connaissez-vous la traduction du mot *trombinoscope* en anglais?
Il s'agit d'un répertoire qui regroupe tous les employés d'une entreprise avec leur photo, leur nom et la description de leur fonction. 
C'est parfois utilisé dans les écoles avec la liste des élèves regroupés par classe.

MERCI de votre aide!!
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Multiple threads on this same topic have been merged here.


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## Markus

Je crois pas que ce genre de chose existe hors de France ... je connais bien à quoi vous parlez parce que à mon travail en France on en a un. Mais c'était la première fois que j'avais jamais vu cela. Aux sociétés canadiens on a d'habitude un "employee directory" mais ce n'est que la structure hiérarchique, pas de photos ou les belles choses comme ça.


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## la_cavalière

Pour une entreprise, je propose "directory" ou "employee directory"


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## Carole1981

Oui, c'est ce que je pensais, mais pour moi c'était l'annuaire. 
Vu que c'est une spécificité française, je vais laisser directory. Merci à vous


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## Staarkali

If anyone can help me fill in the blank 

The dictionnary says here: "Files describing committee members"; I believe that english speaking people have a better word to call a directory of all pictures of a same group/company.


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## Musical Chairs

Profiles you mean? Though profiles are usually more than just pictures.


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## Staarkali

In fact, we used that term to describe a book or a forum thread that main focus is to display every pictures of members/employees/users with (of course) the related names (so the only relevant information here are pictures and names, rest isnt aim of the "trombinoscope")


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## Musical Chairs

I would call that a "directory."


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## Argyll

Mug-shot gallery? But you really need to wait for a native speaker to suggest something better.


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## Staarkali

Google suggests a "rogue's gallery", does it ring any bell to englive native people?

I tend not to trust google but it sometimes brings a new direction when all other online dictionaries let me down


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## Musical Chairs

What?! A mug-shot is a picture of someone when they don't look good at all (like when they just woke up). This is not what you mean.

I have not heard of a "rogue's gallery."


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## pyan

Musical Chairs said:


> What?! A mug-shot is a picture of someone when they don't look good at all (like when they just woke up). This is not what you mean.


A "mug-shot" is a familiar term for an official police or prison photograph.  They tend to make people look unpleasant  , though not as bad as when some people have just woken up.  A "rogues' gallery" has a similar origin.  It meant a group of portraits of criminals.  It could be used disrespectfully for a register of photographs.  

Robert & Collins suggests "photographic register".


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## marcolo

maybe  :
picture gallery


For example, if you have all the pictures of your classmates on a website, how do you call that :

picture gallery of my classmates ?
picture directory of my classmates ?

and if it is all your co-workers

picture directory of my co-workers ?

In french, trombinoscope is clearly a directory of all the pictures of a school, firm, etc. You have some basic informations associated with each picture, like name, age, adress, job title ...


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## wildan1

It's not a tradition in companies to do this in the US

But hearing it described as a photo + description, _(electronic) Who's Who _comes naturally to mind


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## bajowriter

Hi guys,

a little out of date for this thread but good for reference: I worked in a company in France and the English (UK et US) version of the trombinoscope was called a Who's Who.


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## Keith Bradford

The original _Who's Who_ is a reference book of famous people published in London since 1849 by A & C Black.  But the title is in the public domain and I'd think it's ideal (without initial capitals) to translate _*trombinoscope*_.  It can be made more specific, e.g. _The company who's who...  A photographic who's who..._


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## mally pense

What a wonderful word! "Rogues gallery" works very well for me (British English), but only if it is used jokingly or it is obvious in the context that it is not actually a gallery of _rogues_ (see  http://www.wordreference.com/enfr/rogue). Traditionally a rogues gallery is the set of photos the police service would have had of all the known local criminal types (or suspects?) before everything was put onto computers I believe.


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## Frenglish teacher

why not just say "photos", when i was a secondary school teacher in England, we used the term mug shot, probably not a very nice word I agree. I am now in a school in France, we just say students photos, food for thought !


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## cestken

Frenglish teacher said:


> why not just say "photos", when i was a secondary school teacher in England, we used the term mug shot, probably not a very nice word I agree. I am now in a school in France, we just say students photos, food for thought !


Tell me if I'm missing the point but trombine = face; + scope = see; = portrait camera.


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## atcheque

Bonjour,

No it is not portrait camera. _Un trombinoscope_ is an overview of personal pictures.


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## K-F

In English you have to include some name for the group of people whose photos are being displayed. I would suggest "photo gallery of ..."  (not "picture gallery" that was suggested earlier because this conjures up images of paintings on a wall, and could be mistaken for an "art museum"!)

For example "when you enter the building there is a photo gallery of the employees on the wall in front of you."

The alternative is to just describe in words "in the attached file there is a page with photographs of the students in your class" which is admittedly much longer than "un trombinoscope dans la pièce jointe."

Avoid using "mug shots" unless you are joking because (as correctly pointed out earlier) this is slang for police photos.

Oh, and I don't think "organigram" or its variants is totally standard international English. I have never heard it used in North America where "organisational chart" is the usual term. I suppose "organigram" might have slid across the channel into UK English some time ago.

None of this was researched - just my quick take on the "trombinoscope" question.


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## Laloo

in my company we use the term a "who is who"/ "Who's Who" ... which I find quite clear


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## funnyhat

I just watched an American TV show with French subtitles on.  The word "yearbook" was subtitled as _t__rombinoscope_.  I'm not sure how good of a translation that is, though.


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## MrsMeyer

In school, we can print these of our classes and the button to do so simply calls it a class photo. Obviously doesn't work for organisations though.


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## jdgamble

A yearbook (once a year at the end of the year), has individual pictures.  You can take a picture for your badge or identification card for a company, but it is not usually in a public directory; it is just for keeping a record.  We also have a family tree with pictures etc.

I think "photo directory" would be the best translation.  Depending on the context, you could and probably should go more specific.  A class photo directory, a work photo directory, a business photo directory etc.  I think the reason this word is hard to translate is because we don't require pictures for as many things in English.


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## billshields

Je pense que, certainement en anglais britannique de toute façon, en utilisant «Who's Who» est le plus simple et directe - comme, 'Company Name: Who's Who''


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## seanos

Wikipédia tells me that Malek Boutih « a reçu le prix du trombinoscope  « révélation politique de l'année » décerné au Sénat. »https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sénat_(France)

Should I just leave out trombinoscope here?

“In 2003 he received the [who’s who] prize awarded by the Senate for ‘political discovery of the year’.”


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## Kecha

In this case, "Le Trombinoscope" is a publication: Le Trombinoscope — Wikipédia


> _*Le Trombinoscope*_ est un annuaire professionnel du monde politique français, en deux tomes, créé en 1981 par Félix Colin, alors journaliste parlementaire, et publié par Dods PLC. (...)
> _Le Trombinoscope_ décerne plusieurs prix annuels : personnalité politique de l’année, ministre de l’année, révélation politique de l’année, député de l’année, sénateur de l’année, élu local de l’année, européen de l’année.


The English version of the page uses "Trombinoscope".


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## seanos

Merci!


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## Wozzeck.Live

Just note that "trombinoscope" is _colloquial_, and yes, this term became very popular with the early development of Intranet in companies. 

In TLFi : www.cntrl.fr

TROMBINOSCOPE : Définition de TROMBINOSCOPE

In a good french (or francais châtié) we would probably say something like

"galerie  de portraits"

Trombinoscope is in fact a very funny word, it derives from colloquial "trombine"
Your avatar is a very good example of "trombine" as it is often linked to childhood. So "trombine" is generally used as a very gentle word, there is often a connotation of "mignon, craquant"

But "Trombinoscope politique" could also be in some context a little ironic, also since 20 years, "trombinoscope" is now largely used as a simple neutral "galerie de portraits" in some organizations, with no particular connotation, but this term is still not validated as a "correct language" by the TLFI 

Wordreference dictionnary offers the good translation, but as far as I know nobody today found a possible good translation in english reflecting the funny effect, so for such reason some translators use the french word trying probably to keep this funny connotation that would be lost with an academic transcription.

If "trombisnocope" is used with some ironic connotation, in such cases you should keep the french word, as irony would be lost.


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## wildan1

Kecha said:


> In this case, "Le Trombinoscope" is a publication


For a non-French reader, I think it would make sense to help with the understanding of the reference:


seanos said:


> “In 2003 he received the [who’s who] prize awarded


_...he received the French who's-who publication Trombinoscope award for the Senate's best..._


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## Keith Bradford

Kecha said:


> In this case, "Le Trombinoscope" is a publication: Le Trombinoscope — Wikipédia...


So the way to deal with is is to ask: "What if it were _Le Monde_?"  We wouldn't translate it as "_The World_"!

Malek Boutih a reçu le prix du trombinoscope « révélation politique de l'année » décerné au Sénat.
Malek Boutih received the "_Trombinoscope_" award for the political revelation of the year, on behalf of the Senate.


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## Wozzeck.Live

'Le Trombinoscope" as "annuaire politique professionnel" given above is a bad example.
In such case, we DON'T translate, because "Trombinoscope" becomes a "trade mark"

Just note the upper cases "*L*e *T*rombinoscope", just as "*L*e *M*onde", *this is a proper noun *that forbides any translation*.*
Moreover "trombinoscope" is used in such case with an extensive meaning as directory.

A "trombinoscope" is basically a simple "galerie de portraits", for example in primary school.
In other cases, "trombinoscope" can be a diagram used by some services in a company to show in a quick view the members of a team with their roles.

But I have used "trombinoscope" in some big french companies, and what we called "trombinoscope" in theses particular circumstances was an intranet directory (annuaire) where we could find all information to get in touch with the colleague.

In such case one must understand this is an extensive and particular meaning, not the common meaning.

"trombinoscope" is not specially a directory, this is commonly a diagram.


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## Kecha

Wozzeck.Live said:


> 'Le Trombinoscope" as "annuaire politique professionnel" given above is a bad example.


It's not a _bad _example, it's seanos' context. It happens to be a different usage and meaning than the rest of the topic, but that just makes it an interesting, different example.

I think the people back in 2016 had already nailed what a more "typical" trombinoscope was.


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## seanos

Thank you Wozzeck those extra nuances are fascinating. It’s so hard to gather much of  a word’s social context from a dictionary.

I haven’t had a moment to come back to this earlier, but I think there are still some things unclear about the sentence I was translating. I think editors at Wikipédia might have made some mistakes, i.e. le prix du trombinoscope/le prix du Trombinoscope and I’m still puzzled by « décerné au Sénat ». Malek Boutih was never in the Sénat, though he was a député; Le Trombinoscope was founded by a journalist and the prizes seem to be given by journalists.

The citation has _slightly_ different wording:

*Nicolas SARKOZY « personnalité politique de l'année 2003*_ »_ par les prix du Trombinoscope décernés au Sénat. Dominique de VILLEPIN est le « _Ministre de l'année »._ Jean-Louis DEBRE, président de l'Assemblée nationale, et Malek BOUTIH, secrétaire national du PS ont tous deux le prix _de « la révélation politique de l'année »._ L'amiral Philippe de Gaulle auteur du livre « _De GAULLE, mon père_ » est le « _Sénateur de l’année_ ».​
Is it possible that the writer was using _au Sénat_ to refer to _le jury du Trombinoscope_?


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## Kecha

It seems the award ceremony is sometimes held at the Sénat: Dominique de Villepin, "personnalité politique de l'année 2005" - Dominique de Villepin blog (non officiel)


> Le Premier ministre Dominique de Villepin a été désigné "personnalité politique de l'année 2005" par les "Prix du trombinoscope" décernés mardi au Sénat.


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