Wikipedia as a translator of nouns

Most people don’t even know about it but right at the bottom of the left sidebar of every pedia there’s an in other languages section that turns out to be one of Wikipedia’s pearls.

It is wonderful for translating somewhat obscure nouns that you’d rarely find in a bilingual dictionary, like

• the mathematical concepts of an upper bound (mayorante in Spanish), a set (insiemi in Italian) or a tuple (n-uplet in French);

• computer concepts like scrollbar (Bildlauf in German; literally, imagecourse), web browser (navigateur web in French; literally, web navigator), "hyperlink “:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperlink ”p">(collegamento ipertestuale in Italian), real-time (Echtzeit in German), multimedia (_multimedialità _C3%A0 in Italian)%, and operating system (système d’exploitationC3%A8me_d%27exploitation in French)%;

• relatively unknown Greek gods like Cybele (Cibeles ^CB in Spanish) or Priapus (Priape in French);

• exotic (anything really)

  • animals like the civet (Schleichkatzen in German) and the platypus (ornitorinco in Spanish);

  • fruits like the passion fruit (maracujáC3%A1 in Portuguese)% and the jackfruit (yaca in Spanish);

  • plants like the okra (gombo in French), the spearmint (yerbabuena in Spanish; literally, goodgrass), the mandrake (mandragoraC3%A1gora in Spanish)%, and the jimson weed (higuera del infierno in Spanish; literally, infernal fig);

  • flowers like the fuchsia (bellebloem in Nedersaksisch ^WP), the medlar (níspero in Spanish), and the saffron (azafrán)C3%A1n in Spanish)%;

• neologisms like meme meme (mèmeC3%A8me in French)%, GM food (alimento transgénicoC3%A9nico in Spanish)%, and the long tail (longue traîneC3%AEne in French, sometimes longue queue)%;

• international phrases like to be, or not to be (Sein oder Nichtsein2C_das_ist_hier_die_Frage in German)% and Land of the Rising Sun (La Tierra del Sol NacienteC3%B3n in Spanish)%;

• digital accoutrements like inkjet printer (Tintenstrahldrucker in German), touchpad (pavé tactileC3%A9_tactile in French)%, or flatbed scanner (escáner planoC3%A1ner_de_ordenador#Esc.C3.A1ner_plano in Spanish; literally, flat scanner)%;

• drug paraphernalia/jargon like chillum (chiloom in Italian), syringe driver (Spritzenpumpe in German), rolling machine (interpercolatrice in Italian), bong (pipe à eauC3%A0_eau in French)%, and withdrawal syndrome (síndrome de abstinenciaC3%ADndrome_deabstinencia in Spanish)%;

• translatable acronyms like NAFTA (TLCC3%A9rica_del_Norte in Spanish)%, NATO (OTANC3%A9_de_l%27Atlantique_Nord in French)%, USSR (CCCPD0%A1%D0%BE%D1%8E%D0%B7_%D0%A1%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B5%D1%82%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B8%D1%85_%D0%A1%D0%BE%D1%86%D0%B8%D0%B0%D0%BB%D0%B8%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B8%D1%87%D0%B5%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B8%D1%85_%D0%A0%D0%B5%D1%81%D0%BF%D1%83%D0%B1%D0%BB%D0%B8%D0%BA in Russian)%, or GDP (BIP in German);

• or simply peculiar expressions like popular science (divulgación científicaC3%B3n_cient%C3%ADfica in Spanish; literally, scientific divulgation)%, conspicuous consumption (prangende forbruk in Norwegian), prince charming (príncipe azulC3%ADncipe_azul in Spanish; literally, blue prince)%, intellectual property (immaterialrättC3%A4tt in Swedish; literally, immaterial rights)%, apple of discord (Zankapfel in German), or noble savage (buen salvaje in Spanish; literally, good savage).

And it proves a true lifesaver for translating media nouns you would never find in any bilingual dictionary — things like the Smurfs (Pitufos in Spanish), Woody Woodpecker (El Pájaro LocoC3%A1jaro_Loco in Spanish; literally, The Crazy Bird)%, Pinnocchio (Pinocho in Spanish), There’s Something About Mary (Mary à tout prix in French; literally, Mary at any price), Ghostbusters (Cazafantasmas in Spanish; literally, Ghosthunters), or Baywatch (Alerte à MalibuC3%A0Malibu in French; literally, Alert in Malibu)%.

Feb 22, 2009 Update: The best implementation out there automating this idea is Ben Bofil’s recently updated Wikislate. Check it out!

Sep 3, 2009 Update: Another great, passive implementation is Koume_S’s Wikipedia polyglot dictionary Greasemonkey script, which will substitute the language list for the corresponding words. Beautiful!