French term
à l'envi de
Non-PRO (1): Victoria Britten
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Proposed translations
Canada
elsachesnel.com
Native in: French (Variant: Standard-France) 
Works in: English to French, French to English
to promote positive discrimination as much as possible
à l’envi /a lɑ̃.vi/ : Autant que possible en s’encourageant mutuellement et en tentant de surpasser les autres.
montre le parti pris des associations décidés à faire à l’envi de la discrimination positive
Durant tout ce temps, et malgré la distance, les Parisiens vinrent à l’envi saluer le nouveau roi de leurs acclamations et de leurs vœux. — (Julie de Quérangal, Philippe de Morvelle, Revue des Deux Mondes, T.2,4, 1833)
Français et Anglais, si longtemps divisés sur les champs de bataille, se réunirent contre les quadrupèdes usurpateurs. Les fusils, les chiens, les lacets, furent employés à l’envi. — (Jean Louis Armand de Quatrefages de Bréau, L’Archipel de
| agree |
MatthewLaSon
: ... ou bien "at every opportunity" Bonne nuit!
3 hrs
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| agree |
B D Finch
9 hrs
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| neutral |
Victoria Britten
: The item to be translated is just "à l'envi"... Moreover, promoting means publicising, putting forward, encouraging; the French is "faire", which surely just means getting on and doing it.
9 hrs
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worked for int. orgs (IMF, OAS, IDB)
Native in: English
Works in: Spanish to English, German to English
to promote positive discrimination
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Note added at 1 hr (2013-01-04 00:01:02 GMT)
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in the sense of getting things to a better point in this respect
United States
Meticulous, scrupulous, curious work!
Native in: Turkish (Variant: Standard-İstanbul )
Works in: Turkish to English, English to Turkish, French to Turkish, and 1 more.
to make the environment of affirmative
| disagree |
Kim Metzger
: Were you thinking of affirmative action?
6 mins
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| disagree |
Sandra & Kenneth Grossman
: Nothing to do with the environment
5 hrs
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| disagree |
B D Finch
: That is just not grammatical English, makes no sense and the source text is not about the environment.
6 hrs
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Israel
Quality, Reliability, Experience.
Native in: English , Romanian
Works in: French to English, Hebrew to English, Romanian to English, and 3 more.
vying with each other [in promoting positive discrimination of women]
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Note added at 9 hrs (2013-01-04 08:09:55 GMT)
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Actually, vying with one another
at every opportunity
I believe that "à l'envi" means "autant que possible" here. But I would word it as "at every opportunity."
Also, I don't think we're talking about "à qui mieux mieux" here (competing with each other), which is a possible meaning of "à l'envi".
I hope this helps.
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Note added at 18 hrs (2013-01-04 17:17:29 GMT)
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It's being used in the same way here: http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=170823
| agree |
Victoria Britten
: I agree that here it's more about not (no longer) hesitating to use positive discrimination
22 hrs
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Thank you, Victoria! I very much appreciate it. Have a nice weekend.
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Discussion
In "to promote positive discrimination as much as possible" seems to me that the understated tone of the original french is missing.
More context would be helpful in translating "à l'envi", which is wonderfully adaptable.