Sonny Tissot (asker) Mar 9, 2010:

Reply to Christina Christina, thank you again for your input. I'm sure it is a neologism and I think we have to be careful, but I'm going to stick to my decision, because many people have agreed with Richard and fvasconcellos. I had seen embryonation before posting my question on proz, but I wasn't sure if it would be ok to use it. I used the word in my translation, but I also warned the client that I was using it. Now, it is up to people using proz's glossary to decide. Thank you again.

Christina Paiva Mar 9, 2010:

Embryonation & Embrionamento in Dictionaries F. , Richard and Tissot

My concern over this term is that I believe it was literally translated from the book cited by F. that was written by Smyth & McManus (Australian researchers).

This term embrionamento linked consistently to the same author is unusual, to say the least. In such cases, I usually rely on dictionaries :) Therefore:

1. Houaiss: you will find embrionado, along with a number of embryo-derived terms in PT, but not embrionamento

2. Random House: embryonation/embryonated > not listed

3. Merriam Webster's Medical Dictionary:

- embryonate/embryonated/embryonating (verb) - of an egg or a zygote: to produce or differentiate into an embryo
- embryonated (adjective) - having an embryo

So, my point is that translators are responsible for the maintenance of their native language, and should be very careful with neologisms. I know by experience, I used to work with plant cells, somatic embryogenesis, etc.. and was not aware that our literal translations of some terms could affect our language. The term above is a good example...

Filippe Vasconcellos de Freitas Guimarães Mar 5, 2010:

Christina... I'm quite sure the word "embrionamento" wasn't coined by C.L. Massara—it occurs in Spanish as well. Run a Google search for "embrionamento -massara" and I'm sure you'll find it in reputable .edu and .br sites.