Cluster, coping, tracking… In a few days, these scientific terms have spread like wildfire in the media to evoke the Covid-19 epidemic. Derived from notions imported from the Anglo-Saxon world, these anglicisms often remain obscure to many French. However, there are equivalents in French that, according to the Minister of Culture, “speak very well in our language”. “In this time of confinement, let’s not forget that “cluster” is simply “foyer” in French,” observes Franck Riester on his Twitter account.

«We have seen the emergence of new medical concepts in the form of anglicisms that it is more than ever imperative to explain in French», says Paul de Sinety, Delegate General for the French Language and the Languages of France at the Ministry of Culture, highlighting the predominant role of language in the understanding of debates. The General Delegate for the French language and the languages of France returns for us on four equivalents derived from the vocabulary of health and medicine proposed by the Commission d'enrichissement de la langue française (CELF), of which he is a member.

Cluster: focus, cluster, group

“The English word “cluster” refers to “cloister” but in English it refers to the “cluster”; by extension, it means “regrouping in time and space of cases of a disease”. How to translate this specific meaning? What is clear to those familiar with the English language is not necessarily clear to many French. Hence the importance of finding an equivalent of this word in French.

The Commission d'enrichissement de la langue française proposed the word “foyer (épidémie)”. This word has several advantages. “Foyer”, commonly used in French, is also the term used in other Romance languages, which, incidentally, ignore the English word. More specifically, when disciplines such as biostatistics and epidemiology want to refer to “significant grouping of cases with at least one common characteristic”, it will be referred to as “cluster” or “group”.

Comorbidity: disease and pathogenic elements

Unlike cluster, comorbidity is a French word. For the non-specialist in health vocabulary, the terms “morbid”, “morbid”, are synonymous with “unhealthy”. But, we know less, «morbidity» also belongs to the medical vocabulary: it then designates «a set of causes that can produce a disease».

According to the National Public Health Agency or the Medical Dictionary of the Academy of Medicine, the notion of comorbidity is “characterized by the existence of a primary disease called “primary” or “index” associated with multiple and specific clinical conditions”. "Comorbidity" is thus distinguished from "multimorbidity" which, according to the same sources, corresponds to "the sum of clinical conditions without a predominant primary disease".

Coping: facing a trying situation

“The “coping”, according to the Commission d'enrichissement de la langue française, is an anglicism that has become quite common in French in the fields of health and psychology, which means: “the combination of behavioural strategies and emotional resources that an individual uses when faced with a challenging situation.” Hence the equivalent of an effective simplicity proposed by the CELF: «face-to-face».

Tracking: geolocation, tracing and reconstructing routes

“We are hearing a lot about the “opportunity of a digital strategy to identify people who have been in contact with infected people”, in other words, “tracking”. Why is a notion that has such an impact on everyone’s life, from a medical point of view as well as that of civil liberties, expressed only through such an unexplained anglicism? Is it not urgent to propose one (or more) equivalent, if only to clarify the terms of the public debate? This is the question asked by the Commission d'enrichissement de la langue française, when the government has just set up an analysis, research and expertise committee, which must make proposals on this subject.

Rather than “tracking”, when we mean determining the geographical position of a carrier, either a mobile phone (multifunction) or any other connected object, we need only speak of “geolocation”. And if we are interested, rather than in the location of this person, in the location of his mobile, we will speak more simply of “tracing”, keeping in mind that “traceability” refers to the path of objects and goods from the producer to the consumer. In contrast, “tracking” will be left to police investigative enthusiasts and “tracking” will be left to operations that track the movement of a space object. Finally, rather than referring to the “back tracking” of a person carrying the Covid 19 virus, it would be clearer to use the “reconstruct of his or her journey” using the terms “reconstruct of the route” or “reconstruct of the trajectory”. Marine or Aviation Employees”.