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What is the gender of the (rare) noun form of "locale" in French, meaning "place or locality, especially with reference to events or circumstances connected with it"?

I'm aware that this is much more often an adjective, but I'm specifically wanting to use it as a noun. The closest I can find to an answer is CNRTL's entry, where I see the noun form mentioned informally:

INFORM., emploi subst. fém. "Rubrique particulière à une ville ou à une région; édition correspondante" (Voyenne 1967). Surtout en matière de faits divers, mamelles traditionnelles de la locale (Le Monde, 18 mars 1981, p. 42).

Am I right in thinking that it is therefore feminine? So, would the following be a correct translation?

I think this locale is correct.
Je pense que cette locale est correcte.

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  • The answer is in the question. " subst. fem." at he beginning of the article means "substantif féminin"=="feminine noun".
    – P. O.
    Commented May 30, 2015 at 15:03
  • What's the context?
    – Relaxed
    Commented Jun 1, 2015 at 14:35
  • @Relaxed In my case it's "locale" in the computing sense, describing a country and language. I think French ought to use the word in the same sense that English does in the computing context.
    – Jez
    Commented Jun 1, 2015 at 19:11
  • @Jez In this particular context, the people who know what this is are likely to know the word “locale” as well so it could be right. “Paramètres regionaux” would be the word used to communicate it to laypeople (e.g. in documentation).
    – Relaxed
    Commented Jun 1, 2015 at 19:50

2 Answers 2

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Locale is indeed feminine here but only because it is used as a shortcut for rubrique locale (local news / section / page).

One plausible sentence might be:

Je trouve cette locale amusante.

Locale here cannot be translated by the English noun "locale" which has several French translations depending on the context: lieu, localisation, milieu, localité, paramètres régionaux, ...

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To be absolutely clear: There is no noun form of “locale” meaning “place or locality” so, while grammatically valid, the translation is almost certainly incorrect. The dictionary entry you found is about something else entirely.

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  • I don't care. I'm borrowing the new meaning back into French. :-)
    – Jez
    Commented Jun 1, 2015 at 17:41

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