subproportionally

09:17 Jul 3, 2012 

"stop changing constantly your previous comments"
OK will make an effort!

02:19 Jul 3, 2012 

And it would be nice too if you could stop changing constantly your previous comments, so we can have some kind of genuine conversation here! : )

02:14 Jul 3, 2012 

I am sorry, Daryo, but I won't trust you on that one. I have been working as a certified professional translator for the last 13 years, I specialize in finance, and I say this expression doesn't mean anything in French.

Now I look at your bio, and I don't see anything in there that could incite me to "trust you on that one"!

I also see that you avoid as much as possible writing in French here on this site. So, please, stop pulling on my leg! ;-)

02:00 Jul 3, 2012 

"the expression doesn't mean anything in French"?
"en-dessous des nombres proportionnels" on it's own does sound strange
but the whole sentence:
"... avec des effectifs croissant en dessous des nombres proportionnels aux volumes de transactions"
for someone dealing with money,trust me, has a very nice ring to it!
I first did a "tournure de phrase" close to the original, then I realised there's a nicer way of saying it:

"....et ce avec des effectifs croissant plus lentement que le volume des transactions"

Take your pick, whichever sounds more French to you.

01:49 Jul 3, 2012 

Oh, I see, I use those marks only for searches involving more than one word, but it does make a difference for single words too. I am not sure why, though. Thanks for the info. : )

01:46 Jul 3, 2012 

I don't get it. How can something be less than proportional? Can something be half proportional? 40% proportional? Something is proportional or not proportional, no?

01:44 Jul 3, 2012 

search for exact term i.e. "Subproportionally" (entre guillemets), instead of Subproportionally (sans guillemets)

01:40 Jul 3, 2012 

J'obtiens toujours 29 400 résultats. Peut-être l'écart est-il attribuable à une différence dans nos préférences Google.

01:35 Jul 3, 2012 

Essayez, vous verrez.
Par contre, l'expression "en-dessous des nombres proportionnels" ne produit aucun résultat Google.
I understand the explanation, but as far as I am concerned, the expression doesn't mean anything in French. Did you just coin it? : )

01:23 Jul 3, 2012 

you just got the explanation.
29,400 hits for "subproportionally" or "subproportional" ?
6,270 results for "subproportionally". So he's not the only one who needed a word out of the dictionaries.
Anyway the meaning is quite obvious:
sub (=less than, under) proportional.
The only difficulty is to find what is "less than proportional" and in relation to what?

01:21 Jul 3, 2012 

A Google search results in 29,400 hits for the word, so the term has been used before, but in the few sites I have looked, there is no sound explanation of it.

00:57 Jul 3, 2012 

"the effect that expected gains in efficiency unfold and an additional number of transactions are processed, and this with a subproportionally growing number of staff."

scenario A:
NO gains in efficiency:
50 % more transactions means 50 % additional staff needed

scenario B:
gains in efficiency:
50 % more transactions means less than 50 % additional staff needed
--only 40% for example, i.e. less ("sub--") than what a proportional growth would be.

Logic of microeconomics. "Je viens de consulter plusieurs dicos et rien n'apparaît." Unsurprising, this author just coined the word.

00:23 Jul 3, 2012 

Je traduirais tout simplement par quelque chose comme "et ce dans le contexte d'un personnel en croissance".

23:43 Jul 2, 2012 

Je viens de consulter plusieurs dicos et rien n'apparaît. Bien sûr, ça ne fait pas avancer le problème pour autant...mais on a essayé! :)

22:36 Jul 2, 2012 

I think you are stuck with this kind of authors who like to embellish their writings with words gathered here and there that don't really make sense, but sure make them look like they are great writers (or so they think). : )