apolegamy

11:06 Nov 3, 2018 

I found "apolegamy" next to several functions in an operating manual for a Chinese ultrasound probe and since this is the top result for apolegamy in my search engine I thought I'd share my findings. Aploegamy is obviously a mistranslation of some english word. So I used the power of google translate (from English to Chinese and then back to English).

The word we get back for "apolegamy" is 选配 -> "optional".

So anything marked as apolegamy could be optional (may not be included) or, possibly, only a subset of the given items (as in a choice/variant).

19:37 Dec 15, 2010 

I don't even dare imagine the lexical connection between a nail-polishing machine and sexual selection!!!

It's also seen alongside Wi-Fi — which is, however, possibly more understandable ;-)

19:34 Dec 15, 2010 

Indeed, I'm going to ask into Chinese -> EN forum

Thanks a lot for the clever suggestion Tony!

CHeers

19:34 Dec 15, 2010 

ah ah, google translation translates 性选择 as sélection sexuelle (sexual selection)...

19:32 Dec 15, 2010 

My explanation of the typo is much more "capillotractée" then!

Yes, it could be approximately but I simplified my description in fact (to ease the reading) and the real measurements are quite precise in millimeters in fact 2,35 / 3 / 3,175 mm (apolegamy)

It could mean "3,175 mm approximately" then.. Could make sense

19:28 Dec 15, 2010 

The typo you made was in the context part of your question, where you've type 'apolegy'.

It seems to me even more likely that this is (was originally) some kind of transcription error — 'apolegamy' has almost the right number of syllables for 'approximately', imagine it being pronounced badly by a non-native EN speaker... and then go figure how it got into the dictionary!

Oh look, this site gives it with its Chinese characters (may not come out here!):

apolegamy has this meaning. ... apolegamy [医] 性选择, 选配.
...

ec.mydict.com/apolegamy/ - Allemagne

Perhaps you could ask for help in the Chinese > EN forum?

I did also notice that it is used on other sites in other ways, where 'approximately' couldn't possibly fit, so I think that bright idea is out ;-(

Here's another site that is actually an EN > CH dictionary, and seems to give the same result:

http://www.chinaorb.com/index-ec.php?s_word=apolegamy

【医】 性选择, 选配

I feel sure our CH colleagues will be able to shed some light on this for you.

19:24 Dec 15, 2010 

And if you search for "apolegamy" in google you'll see this word appears along quite a few technical descriptions in english coming from Chinese sites (hence my suspicion there's an odd glossary circulating in China!).

19:23 Dec 15, 2010 

Hi Tony!

Indeed I thought I had mistyped it (lol).

No, the real word (triple checked) appearing in the manual is indeed "Apolegamy" !!

Thanks!

19:13 Dec 15, 2010 

I'd have thought this is the word that would make sense in the context given.

Looks like a typo for 'apology', but difficult to see how they'd get to that from 'approximately', even going via Greek!

Unless it was inaccurate transcription from dictation that somehow got spell-checked wrongly!

(I assume your original headword term was in fact just your own typo?)