german-american

west [west]

1 noun

(a) Geography ouest m;

∎ in the west à l'ouest, dans l'ouest;

∎ the house lies to the west (of the town) la maison se trouve à l'ouest (de la ville);

∎ two miles to the west trois kilomètres à l'ouest;

∎ look towards the west regardez vers l'ouest;

∎ I was born in the west je suis né dans l'Ouest;

∎ in the west of Austria dans l'ouest de l'Autriche;

∎ on the west of the island à l'ouest de l'île;

∎ the wind is in the west le vent est à l'ouest;

∎ the wind is coming from the west le vent vient ou souffle de l'ouest;

∎ the West (the Occident) l'Occident m, les pays mpl occidentaux; (in US) l'Ouest m (États situés à l'ouest du Mississippi)

(b) Cards ouest m

2 adjective

(a) Geography ouest (inv), de l'ouest; (country) de l'Ouest; (wall) exposé à l'ouest;

∎ the west coast la côte ouest;

∎ in west London dans l'ouest de Londres;

∎ on the west side du côté ouest

(b) (wind) d'ouest

3 adverb

à l'ouest; (travel) vers l'ouest, en direction de l'ouest;

∎ the village lies west of Manchester le village est situé à l'ouest de Manchester;

∎ the living room faces west la salle de séjour est exposée à l'ouest;

∎ the path heads (due) west le chemin va ou mène (droit) vers l'ouest;

∎ drive west until you come to a main road roulez vers l'ouest jusqu'à ce que vous arriviez à une route principale;

∎ I travelled west je suis allé vers l'ouest;

∎ he travelled west for three days pendant trois jours, il a voyagé en direction de l'ouest;

∎ to sail west naviguer cap sur l'ouest;

∎ it's 20 miles west of Edinburgh c'est à 32 kilomètres à l'ouest d'Édimbourg;

∎ west by north/by south ouest-quart-nord-ouest/ouest-quart-sud-ouest;

∎ the school lies further west of the town hall l'école se trouve plus à l'ouest de la mairie;

∎ to go west aller à ou vers l'ouest; familiar humorous (person) passer l'arme à gauche; (thing) tomber à l'eau;

∎ familiar there's another job gone west! encore un emploi de perdu!

►► West Africa Afrique f occidentale;

1 noun

habitant(e) m,f de l'Afrique occidentale

2 adjective

(languages, states) de l'Afrique occidentale, ouest-africain;

the West Bank la Cisjordanie;

∎ on the West Bank en Cisjordanie;

formerly West Berlin Berlin m Ouest;

formerly West Berliner habitant(e) m,f de Berlin Ouest;

Irish familiar pejorative West Brit = terme péjoratif désignant les Irlandais qui cherchent à s'angliciser par l'accent, le mode de vie etc;

the West Coast la côte ouest (des États-Unis);

the West Country = le sud-ouest de l'Angleterre (Cornouailles, Devon et Somerset);

noun

(in general) les quartiers mpl ouest; (of London) le West End (centre touristique et commercial de la ville de Londres connu pour ses théâtres);

1 noun

Allemand(e) m,f de l'Ouest

2 adjective

ouest-allemand;

formerly West Germany Allemagne f de l'Ouest;

∎ in West Germany en Allemagne de l'Ouest;

Geography West Glamorgan le West Glamorgan, = comté du sud-ouest du pays de Galles;

∎ in West Glamorgan dans le West Glamorgan;

West Highland terrier terrier m écossais, West Highland terrier m; West Indian

1 noun

Antillais(e) m,f

2 adjective

antillais;

the West Indies les Antilles fpl;

∎ in the West Indies aux Antilles;

∎ the French West Indies les Antilles françaises;

∎ the Dutch West Indies les Antilles néerlandaises;

the West Midlands les West Midlands mpl, = comté du centre de l'Angleterre;

∎ in the West Midlands dans les West Midlands;

West Point = importante école militaire américaine;

American the West Side les quartiers mpl ouest de New York;

West Sussex le Sussex occidental, = comté du sud de l'Angleterre;

∎ in West Sussex dans le Sussex occidental;

West Virginia la Virginie-Occidentale;

∎ in West Virginia en Virginie-Occidentale;

West Yorkshire le West Yorkshire, = comté du nord de l'Angleterre;

∎ in West Yorkshire dans le West Yorkshire

✾ Film 'Once Upon a Time in the West' Leone 'Il était une fois dans l'ouest'

ⓘ Go West young man On attribue cette phrase ("va vers l'Ouest, jeune homme") à John Soule, journaliste américain de l'Indiana qui l'aurait employée pour la première fois en 1851. Il s'agit d'une allusion à la colonisation de l'ouest américain mais on emploie cette formule dans d'autres contextes, lorsque quelqu'un part en voyage vers l'Ouest, quel que soit le pays où il se trouve, ou bien en l'adaptant en remplaçant "ouest" par un autre terme. On utilise aussi cette expression pour encourager quelqu'un à faire preuve d'ambition et à se déplacer de façon à trouver du travail.

word [wɜ:d]

mot ⇒ 1 (a)-(c) parole ⇒ 1 (a), 1 (b), 1 (d) nouvelles ⇒ 1 (c) message ⇒ 1 (c) promesse ⇒ 1 (d) conseil ⇒ 1 (e) bruit ⇒ 1 (f) ordre ⇒ 1 (g) rédiger ⇒ 2 (a)

1 noun

(a) (gen → written) mot m; (→ spoken) mot m, parole f;

∎ the words of a song les paroles d'une chanson;

∎ ironic (what) fine words! quelles belles paroles!;

∎ what is the Russian word for "head"?, what is the word for "head" in Russian? comment dit-on "head" en russe?;

∎ the Japanese don't have a word for it les Japonais n'ont pas de mot pour dire cela;

∎ she can't put her ideas/her feelings into words elle ne trouve pas les mots pour exprimer ses idées/ce qu'elle ressent;

∎ I can't find (the) words to tell you how glad I am! je ne saurais vous dire à quel point je suis content!;

∎ there are no words to describe or words cannot describe how I feel aucun mot ne peut décrire ce que je ressens;

∎ they left without (saying) a word ils sont partis sans (dire) un mot;

∎ with these words they left sur ces mots ou là-dessus, ils sont partis;

∎ lazy isn't the word for it! paresseux, c'est peu dire!;

∎ idle would be a better word oisif serait plus juste;

∎ figurative he doesn't know the meaning of the word "generosity" il ne sait pas ce que veut dire le mot "générosité";

∎ he's mad, there's no other word for it il est fou, il n'y a pas d'autre mot;

∎ there's a word for people like you, it's "thief" les gens dans ton genre, on les appelle des voleurs;

∎ I didn't understand a word of the lecture je n'ai pas compris un mot de la conférence;

∎ he doesn't know a word of German il ne sait pas un mot d'allemand;

∎ I don't believe a word of it! je n'en crois pas un mot!;

∎ that's my last or my final word on the matter c'est mon dernier mot (sur la question);

∎ those were his dying words ce sont les dernières paroles qu'il a prononcées avant de mourir;

∎ she said a few words of welcome elle a dit quelques mots de bienvenue;

∎ I gave him a few words of advice je lui ai donné quelques conseils;

∎ I gave him a few words of encouragement je lui ai dit quelques mots d'encouragement;

∎ can I give you a word of warning/of advice? puis-je vous mettre en garde/vous conseiller?;

∎ he didn't say a word il n'a rien dit, il n'a pas dit un mot;

∎ I can't get a word out of her je ne peux pas en tirer un mot;

∎ and now a word from our sponsors et maintenant, voici un message publicitaire de nos sponsors;

∎ I'm a woman of few words je ne suis pas quelqu'un qui fait de grands discours;

∎ he's a man of few words c'est un homme peu loquace, c'est quelqu'un qui n'aime pas beaucoup parler;

∎ in the words of Shelley comme l'a dit Shelley;

∎ in the words of his boss, he's a layabout à en croire son patron ou d'après (ce que dit) son patron, c'est un fainéant;

∎ tell me in your own words dites-le moi à votre façon ou avec vos propres mots;

∎ he told me in so many words that I was a liar il m'a dit carrément ou sans mâcher ses mots que j'étais un menteur;

∎ she didn't say it in so many words but her meaning was quite clear elle n'a pas dit exactement cela, mais c'était sous-entendu;

∎ a six-hundred-word article un article de six cents mots;

∎ by or through word of mouth oralement;

∎ the news spread by word of mouth la nouvelle se répandit de bouche à oreille;

∎ too beautiful for words d'une beauté extraordinaire;

∎ too stupid for words vraiment trop bête;

∎ word for word (translate) littéralement, mot à mot; (repeat) mot pour mot;

∎ from the word go dès le départ;

∎ (upon) my word! ma parole!, oh la la!;

∎ not a word! pas un mot!, bouche cousue!;

∎ don't put words into my mouth ne me faites pas dire ce que je n'ai pas dit;

∎ he took the words out of my mouth il a dit exactement ce que j'allais dire;

∎ words fail me! j'en perds la parole!, je suis stupéfait!;

∎ he never has a good word to say about anyone personne ne trouve jamais grâce à ses yeux;

∎ to put in a (good) word for sb glisser un mot en faveur de qn;

∎ to have the last word avoir le dernier mot;

∎ British it's the last word in comfort c'est ce qui se fait de mieux en matière de confort;

∎ British it's the last word in luxury c'est ce qu'on fait de plus luxueux

(b) (talk) mot(s) m(pl), parole(s) f(pl);

∎ to have a word with sb about sth toucher un mot ou deux mots à qn au sujet de qch;

∎ can I have a word with you about the meeting? est-ce que je peux vous dire deux mots à propos de la réunion?;

∎ can I have a word? je voudrais vous parler un instant

(c) (UNCOUNT) (news) nouvelle(s) f(pl); (message) message m, mot m;

∎ the word got out that there had been a coup la nouvelle d'un coup d'État a circulé;

∎ word came from Tokyo that the strike was over la nouvelle arriva de Tokyo que la grève était terminée;

∎ she brought them word of Tom elle leur a apporté des nouvelles de Tom;

∎ have you had any word from him? avez-vous eu de ses nouvelles?;

∎ we have had no word from him nous sommes sans nouvelles de lui;

∎ she left word for us to follow elle nous a laissé un message pour dire que nous devions la suivre;

∎ to spread the word (proselytize) annoncer la bonne parole;

∎ spread the word that Mick's back in town faites passer la nouvelle ou faites dire que Mick est de retour en ville;

∎ he sent word to say he had arrived safely il a envoyé un mot pour dire qu'il était bien arrivé

(d) (promise) parole f, promesse f;

∎ he gave his word that we wouldn't be harmed il a donné sa parole qu'il ne nous ferait aucun mal;

∎ I give you my word on it je vous en donne ma parole;

∎ she gave her solemn word elle a juré ou elle a promis solennellement;

∎ to break one's word manquer à sa parole;

∎ to go back on one's word revenir sur sa parole;

∎ we held or we kept her to her word nous l'avons obligée à tenir sa parole;

∎ to keep one's word tenir parole, tenir (sa) promesse;

∎ he was as good as his word il a tenu parole;

∎ she's a woman of her word c'est une femme de parole;

∎ I'm a man of my word je suis un homme de parole;

∎ word of honour! parole d'honneur!;

∎ we only have his word for it il n'y a que lui qui le dit, personne ne peut prouver le contraire;

∎ you can take my word for it vous pouvez me croire sur parole;

∎ we'll have to take your word for it nous sommes bien obligés de vous croire;

∎ take my word (for it), it's a bargain! croyez-moi, c'est une affaire!;

∎ I took her at her word je l'ai prise au mot;

∎ it's your word against mine c'est votre parole contre la mienne;

∎ my word is my bond je n'ai qu'une parole, je tiens toujours parole

(e) (advice) conseil m;

∎ a word to travellers, watch your luggage! un petit conseil aux voyageurs, surveillez vos bagages!;

∎ a quick word in your ear je vous glisse un mot à l'oreille;

∎ a word to the wise à bon entendeur, salut

(f) (rumour) bruit m;

∎ (the) word went round that he was dying le bruit a couru qu'il était sur le point de mourir

(g) (order) ordre m;

∎ he gave the word to march il a donné l'ordre ou le signal de se mettre en marche;

∎ his word is law c'est lui qui fait la loi;

∎ just give or say the word and we'll be off vous n'avez qu'à donner le signal et nous partons

(h) (watchword) mot m d'ordre; (password) mot m de passe;

∎ the word now is "democracy" le mot d'ordre maintenant, c'est "démocratie"

2 transitive verb

(a) (letter, document) rédiger, formuler; (contract) rédiger;

∎ they worded the petition carefully ils ont choisi les termes de la pétition avec le plus grand soin;

∎ we sent a strongly worded protest nous avons envoyé une lettre de protestation bien sentie

(b) Australian familiar (advise) conseiller^□ ; (inform) informer^□

3 exclamation

American familiar

∎ word (up)! (I agree) parfaitement!^□ ; (it's true) sans dec!

4 Word noun

∎ Religion the Word le Verbe;

∎ the Word of God la parole de Dieu

5 words plural noun

British familiar (argument) dispute^□ f;

∎ to have words se disputer^□, avoir des mots;

∎ they had words about her drinking ils se sont disputés sur le fait qu'elle boit^□

6 in a word adverb

en un mot

7 in other words adverb

autrement dit, en d'autres termes

►► word association association f d'idées par les mots;

Linguistics word class classe f de mots;

Computing word count nombre m des mots;

∎ to do a word count compter les mots;

word count facility fonction f de comptage de mots;

word game = jeu de lettres;

word group groupe m de mots, membre m de phrase;

word order ordre m des mots;

word picture description f imagée ou pittoresque; (of person) portrait m en prose;

word processing traitement m de texte;

word processor logiciel m de traitement de texte;

Typography word split coupure f de mot;

Computing word wrap retour m à la ligne automatique

SUBJECT AREA: Mining and extraction technology

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After leaving Durham college of Physical Science and having been apprenticed in different mines, he received the certificate for colliery managers and subsequently, in 1887, was appointed Manager of all the mines of Charlaw and Sacriston collieries in Durham. He remained in this position for the rest of his working life.

Frequent explosions in mines led him to investigate the causes. He was among the first to recognize the role contributed by coal-dust on mine roads, pioneered the use of inert rock-or stone-dust to render the coal-dust harmless and was the originator of many technical terms on the subject. He contributed many papers on explosion and was appointed a member of many advisory committees on prevention measures. A liquid-air rescue apparatus, designed by him and patented in 1910, was installed in various parts of the country.

Blackett also developed various new devices in mining machinery. He patented a wire-rope socket which made use of a metal wedge; invented a rotary tippler driven by frictional contact instead of gearing and which stopped automatically; and he designed a revolving cylindrical coal-washer, which also gained interest among German mining engineers. His most important invention, the first successful coal-face conveyor, was patented in 1902. It was driven by compressed air and consisted of a trough running along the length of the race through which ran an endless scraper chain. Thus fillers cast the coal into the trough, and the scraper chain drew it to the main gate to be loaded into trams.

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SUBJECT AREA: Paper and printing

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Blickensderfer was educated at the academy in Erie and at Allegheny College. He seems to have followed a business career, and in the course of his travels he became aware of the need for a simple, durable, but portable typewriter. He was in business in Stanford, Connecticut, where he developed but did not patent a number of typewriters, including a machine in which a type wheel could print short words such as "an" and "as" by depressing a single key. In 1889 he set up the Blickensderfer Manufacturing Company to perfect and mass-produce the machine he had in mind. He needed two years to test and perfect the model, and in 1891 work started on the factory that was to manufacture it. On the verge of mass-production in 1893, he produced a few machines for the Chicago World Exhibition in that year. Their success was sensational, and the "Blickensderfer" received the highest accolades from the judges, who hailed it as "extraordinary progress in the art of typewriting". The "Blickensderfer" appeared with successive modifications in the following years: they were durable, lightweight machines, with interchangeable type wheels, and were the first widely-used readily-portable typewriters.

Around 1902 Blickensderfer produced the first electric typewriter. A few electric machines were produced and some were sent to Europe, including England, but they are now very rare. One Blick Electric has been preserved in the Beeching Typewriter Collection in Bournemouth, England.

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SUBJECT AREA: Electricity, Metallurgy

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Coolidge obtained his BS from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1896, and his PhD (physics) from the University of Leipzig in 1899. He was appointed Assistant Professor of Physics at MIT in 1904, and in 1905 he joined the staff of the General Electric Company's research laboratory at Schenectady. In 1905 Schenectady was trying to make tungsten-filament lamps to counter the competition of the tantalum-filament lamps then being produced by their German rival Siemens. The first tungsten lamps made by Just and Hanaman in Vienna in 1904 had been too fragile for general use. Coolidge and his life-long collaborator, Colin G. Fink, succeeded in 1910 by hot-working directly dense sintered tungsten compacts into wire. This success was the result of a flash of insight by Coolidge, who first perceived that fully recrystallized tungsten wire was always brittle and that only partially work-hardened wire retained a measure of ductility. This grasped, a process was developed which induced ductility into the wire by hot-working at temperatures below those required for full recrystallization, so that an elongated fibrous grain structure was progressively developed. Sintered tungsten ingots were swaged to bar at temperatures around 1,500°C and at the end of the process ductile tungsten filament wire was drawn through diamond dies around 550°C. This process allowed General Electric to dominate the world lamp market. Tungsten lamps consumed only one-third the energy of carbon lamps, and for the first time the cost of electric lighting was reduced to that of gas. Between 1911 and 1914, manufacturing licences for the General Electric patents had been granted for most of the developed work. The validity of the General Electric monopoly was bitterly contested, though in all the litigation that followed, Coolidge's fibering principle was upheld. Commercial arrangements between General Electric and European producers such as Siemens led to the name "Osram" being commonly applied to any lamp with a drawn tungsten filament. In 1910 Coolidge patented the use of thoria as a particular additive that greatly improved the high-temperature strength of tungsten filaments. From this development sprang the technique of "dispersion strengthening", still being widely used in the development of high-temperature alloys in the 1990s. In 1913 Coolidge introduced the first controllable hot-cathode X-ray tube, which had a tungsten target and operated in vacuo rather than in a gaseous atmosphere. With this equipment, medical radiography could for the first time be safely practised on a routine basis. During the First World War, Coolidge developed portable X-ray units for use in field hospitals, and between the First and Second World Wars he introduced between 1 and 2 million X-ray machines for cancer treatment and for industrial radiography. He became Director of the Schenectady laboratory in 1932, and from 1940 until 1944 he was Vice-President and Director of Research. After retirement he was retained as an X-ray consultant, and in this capacity he attended the Bikini atom bomb trials in 1946. Throughout the Second World War he was a member of the National Defence Research Committee.

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SUBJECT AREA: Chemical technology

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Haber's father was a manufacturer of dyestuffs, so he studied organic chemistry at Berlin and Heidelberg universities to equip him to enter his father's firm. But his interest turned to physical chemistry and remained there throughout his life. He became Assistant at the Technische Hochschule in Karlsruhe in 1894; his first work there was on pyrolysis and electrochemistry, and he published his Grundrisse der technischen Electrochemie in 1898. Haber became famous for thorough and illuminating theoretical studies in areas of growing practical importance. He rose through the academic ranks and was appointed a full professor in 1906. In 1912 he was also appointed Director of the Institute of Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry at Dahlem, outside Berlin.

Early in the twentieth century Haber invented a process for the synthesis of ammonia. The English chemist and physicist Sir William Crookes (1832–1919) had warned of the danger of mass hunger because the deposits of Chilean nitrate were becoming exhausted and nitrogenous fertilizers would not suffice for the world's growing population. A solution lay in the use of the nitrogen in the air, and the efforts of chemists centred on ways of converting it to usable nitrate. Haber was aware of contemporary work on the fixation of nitrogen by the cyanamide and arc processes, but in 1904 he turned to the study of ammonia formation from its elements, nitrogen and hydrogen. During 1907–9 Haber found that the yield of ammonia reached an industrially viable level if the reaction took place under a pressure of 150–200 atmospheres and a temperature of 600°C (1,112° F) in the presence of a suitable catalyst—first osmium, later uranium. He devised an apparatus in which a mixture of the gases was pumped through a converter, in which the ammonia formed was withdrawn while the unchanged gases were recirculated. By 1913, Haber's collaborator, Carl Bosch had succeeded in raising this laboratory process to the industrial scale. It was the first successful high-pressure industrial chemical process, and solved the nitrogen problem. The outbreak of the First World War directed the work of the institute in Dahlem to military purposes, and Haber was placed in charge of chemical warfare. In this capacity, he developed poisonous gases as well as the means of defence against them, such as gas masks. The synthetic-ammonia process was diverted to produce nitric acid for explosives. The great benefits and achievement of the Haber-Bosch process were recognized by the award in 1919 of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, but on account of Haber's association with chemical warfare, British, French and American scientists denounced the award; this only added to the sense of bitterness he already felt at his country's defeat in the war. He concentrated on the theoretical studies for which he was renowned, in particular on pyrolysis and autoxidation, and both the Karlsruhe and the Dahlem laboratories became international centres for discussion and research in physical chemistry.

With the Nazi takeover in 1933, Haber found that, as a Jew, he was relegated to second-class status. He did not see why he should appoint staff on account of their grandmothers instead of their ability, so he resigned his posts and went into exile. For some months he accepted hospitality in Cambridge, but he was on his way to a new post in what is now Israel when he died suddenly in Basel, Switzerland.

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SUBJECT AREA: Medical technology

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After education at Yale University, he studied at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York, qualifying in 1877. Following internships in New York, he spent two postgraduate years in Germany and Austria, where he became acquainted with the German methods of surgical education. He returned to New York in 1880 to practise privately and also demonstrate anatomy at the College.

In 1884, when experimenting with cocaine as an anaesthetic, he became addicted; he underwent treatment for his addiction in 1886–7 and there is also some evidence of treatment for morphine addiction in 1892. As a consequence of these problems he moved to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, where he was appointed Surgeon-in-Chief in 1890 and Professor of Surgery in 1892. In this role he devoted considerable time to laboratory study and made important contributions in the treatment of breast carcinoma, thyroid disease and aneurism. A perfectionist, his technical advances were an outcome of his approach to surgery, which was methodical and painstaking in comparison with the cavalier methods of some contemporaries.

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SUBJECT AREA: Electricity

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After studying architecture at Göttingen University, Jacobi turned his attention to physics and chemistry. In 1835 he was appointed a professor of civil engineering at the University of Dorpat (which later assumed the Estonian name of Tartu). Later, moving to St Petersburg, he became a member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences and commenced research on electricity and its practical applications. In December 1834 Jacobi presented a paper to the Academy of Sciences in Paris in which he stated that he had obtained rotation by electromagnetic methods in May of that year. Tsar Nicholas of Russia gave him a grant to prove that his electric motor had a practical application. Jacobi had a boat constructed that measured 28 ft in length and was propelled by paddles connected to an electric motor of his own design. Powered by Grove cells, it carried about fourteen passengers at a speed of almost 3 mph (5 km/h) on the River Neva. The weight of and possibly the fumes from the batteries contributed to the abandonment of the project. In 1839 Jacobi introduced electrotyping, i.e. the reproduction of forms by electrodeposition, which was one of the first commercial applications of electricity. In 1840 he reported the results of his investigations into the power of the electromagnet as a function of various parameters to the British Association.

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