Hi Cecil,
The CE in “CE mark” stands for Communeaute Europeenne, whis translated into English is European Community. Just to make sure the Dope is straight!
Cheers!
Hi Cecil,
The CE in “CE mark” stands for Communeaute Europeenne, whis translated into English is European Community. Just to make sure the Dope is straight!
Cheers!
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a990402c.html
link.
Communitee Européen is the correct spelling. Would you believe that I actually asked a frenchman how to spell it and he got it wrong!!
Communité Européenne would have been even better.
All of which would be useful if this particular usage of the initials “CE” stood for Communité Européenne. I know we’ve been through this before, and most people agreed: it doesn’t. It isn’t strictly an abbreviation, although it is vaguely based on a French phrase; the letters indicate that the product Conforms to the relevant European standards. (Note that it hasn’t changed to UE now, nor was it ever written EC in for example Britain.)
The question wasn’t about the use of CE on EC-era documents and so forth, remember, but specifically about the stylized CE mark used on certain products sold in the European Union.
To tell you the truth, and I can’t believe I’m about to say this, but I think you’re all wrong… including Cecil (That, or I’ve been led way astray by my friends).
As I understand it, CE stands for Conformité Européenne… not Communité Européenne. When translated into english, Conformité Européenne changes around to European Conformity.
About all it’s saying is that it meets European Conformity standards- it’s akin to our Underwriters Laboratory in both its mission and symbol dealy. It’s a product safety stamp. That is, for the product to bear the UL or CE marks, it must meet a number of requirements.
It’s not referring to community at all, at least in its symbol, it’s referring to European Conformity standards as it pertains to the European Community.
Lord help me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think I am.
And Communautés européennes would have been best of all…
I can’t find a reference, but I am sure that CE = Conformité
européenne is correct.
You’re right, Tamealien, and so was I.
I did a bit of checking on what exactly that thing means. Everything I’ve read says that CE=Conformité Européene, or translated, means European Conformity.
One site I found puts it all together quite succinctly…
It’s also interesting to note that Cecil got the terminology wrong too…
So, it appears that we’re right and the big-guy is wrong… on two counts.
I wonder how often that happens.
How did Cecil get the terminology wrong? I see the term “CE Marking” in the online article referred to by TwistofFate.
I personally see “Communeauté européenne” (singular) being used most often.
You’re right.
That makes us one for one on facts.
Yes, the singular form is probably most common, but technically it should be plural (see http://europa.eu.int/geninfo/copyright_en.htm or http://europa.eu.int/geninfo/copyright_fr.htm in french for example)
This is because it refers to three Communities - the European Coal and Steel Community, the European Economic Community and the European Atomic Energy Community. Of course since the Maastricht Treaty European Union is more commonly used anyway…
Tamealien, I did not know that. On the other hand, the CE mark would probably only be relevant for the economic community, hence the singular would be acceptable in this thread, eh? (Never say die!)
I’m getting this picture of someone stamping the CE mark on each lump of coal…
And adding a special “CE electron” to every atom…