The Term of Translation

Etymologically, translation is a "carrying across" or "bringing across". The Latin translation derives from the perfect passive participle, translatum, of transferre ("to transfer" — from trans, "across" + ferre, "to carry" or "to bring"). The modern Romance, Germanic and Slavic European languages have generally formed their own equivalent terms for this concept after the Latin model — after transferee or after the kindred traducere ("to bring across" or "to lead across"). Additionally, the Ancient Greek term for "translation", μετάφραςισ (metaphrasis, "a speaking across"), has supplied English with metaphrase (a "literal translation", or "word-for-word" translation)—as contrasted with paraphrase ("a saying in other words", from the Greek παράφραςισ, paraphrasis"). Metaphrase corresponds, in one of the more recent terminologies, to "formal equivalence", and paraphrase to "dynamic equivalence." 18 | P a g e Global Translation Institute (GTI)

A widely recognized icon for the practice and historic role of translation is the Rosetta Stone, which in the United States is incorporated into the crest of the Defense Language Institute.