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Auf- und Abbau
Inbetriebnahme der Richtfunkkabine
Nov 20, 2005 13:12
18 yrs ago
1 viewer *
German term

Mailing

German to English Marketing Printing & Publishing
Ein Mailing ist ein Geschäftsbrief, der an viele Empfänger versandt wird, aber doch persönlich wirken soll.

This is from a company's internal style guide. My question is whether 'mailing' is a standard term (especially in BE) for a direct mail shot or just another English word co-opted into German.
Proposed translations (English)
3 +1 "mailing"
4 mailing
2 personalised direct mail

Discussion

Hilary Davies Shelby Nov 20, 2005:
Unfortunately, i'd use "mailing", too, ie. "if you'd prefer not to receive mailings from us in future, please call us on 0800...". It can refer to email communications or postal ones. Yeuch.
Stephen Roche (asker) Nov 20, 2005:
Thing is, it's from a style guide, so it refers in general to all direct mailing(s?). God, what's happening to this language?
Ian M-H (X) Nov 20, 2005:
Alternative solutions might include "our regular briefing", "our weekly information service", "our quarterly subscribers newsletter" and so on.
Ian M-H (X) Nov 20, 2005:
Given the additional context - i.e. not just marketing - I'd say that "mailing" is fine. Certainly common in e.g. "our monthly mailing". So give yourself the points ;-)
Stephen Roche (asker) Nov 20, 2005:
The problem with mailshot here is that (to me at least) it suggests selling something. The 'mailings' in this case can also include news about corporate events and so on.
Stephen Roche (asker) Nov 20, 2005:
And what about 'mailing'? Is this used at all in an anglophone context?

Proposed translations

+1
1 hr
Selected

"mailing"

Obvious that this is a co-opted and misused English term, but for lack of a better umbrella word in English, you could always just put it in inverted commas.

In AE we'd probably just use 'circular'.

Ian's suggestions are good, but too narrow for the context, methinks.
Peer comment(s):
agree Ian M-H (X) : ;-) (but no need for inverted commas IMO)
1 day 4 hrs
neutral Dan McCrosky (X) : Yes, the quotation marks (= inverted commas) would look a bit strange here, besides that, the term "mailing" is not being misused here.
1 day 6 hrs
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4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Thanks Lucasm"
2 mins

personalised direct mail

may be the one you'd like
Something went wrong...
3 hrs

mailing

IMO, the term can also used in English as it is used in German.

NODE – The New Oxford Dictionary of English gives this, among others, definition of "mailing": something sent by mail, especially a piece of mass advertising

The phrase "send a mailing to" draws over 150 Google English .uk domain hits:

http://www.google.de/search?num=100&hl=en&as_qdr=all&q="send...

and over 1,000 Google English .com domain hits:

http://www.google.de/search?num=100&hl=en&as_qdr=all&q="send...

The phrase "receive a mailing from" draws over 30 Google English .uk domain hits:

http://www.google.de/search?num=100&hl=en&as_qdr=all&q="rece...

and over 400 Google English .com domain hits:

http://www.google.de/search?num=100&hl=en&as_qdr=all&q="rece...

Many of the above hits meet your customer's style guide definition.



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Note added at 7 hrs 39 mins (2005-11-20 20:51:41 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Of course the first sentence should read:
IMO, the term can also be used in English as it is used in German.
Reference:

http://www.google.de/search?num=100&hl=en&as_qdr=all&q=%22send+a+mailing+to%22+site%3A.com

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