Pascale Elbaz

ISIT Université Paris Panthéon Assas
Member of: WG4

FEATURED NEOLOGISM:

My favourite neologism, or at least the most recent one, is “水花消失术” (shuihua xiaoshi shu) which means: “water splash disappearance technique”. I discovered it during the Olympic Games, when 17-year-old Quan Hongshan dived into the water, with very little ripples. After she disappeared into the water, nobody could have guessed that someone had just dived. She defended her women’s 10-meter platform diving event at the recently concluded 2024 Paris Olympics. She also won the gold medal in women’s synchronized 10 meter platform diving, partnered with Chen Yuxi and both athletes would use the 水花消失术 technique. The two athletes already won the gold and silver medals in the women’s 10-meter platform diving event at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and that’s how far I could get into the history of the term.

I hold a doctorate from Inalco in the History of Ideas, specializing in the Chinese world. My thesis focused on the terminology of Chinese calligraphy treatises in late Imperial China. I teach terminology and research methodology at ISIT. I lead applied terminology projects in partnership with the Musée du Louvre, TermCoord, the European Commission’s Translation Directorate and the DGLFLF 5French Ministry of culture). I supervise master’s theses in socioterminology.