Source : Free On-Line Dictionary of Computing

dynamic translation
     
         A {virtual machine} implementation approach,
        used to speed up execution of {byte-code} programs.  To
        execute a program unit such as a {method} or a {function}, the
        virtual machine compiles its bytecodes into (hardware) machine
        code.  The translated code is also placed in a cache, so that
        next time that unit's machine code can be executed
        immediately, without repeating the translation.
     
        This technique was pioneered by the commercial {Smalltalk}
        implementation currently known as {VisualWorks}, in the early
        1980s.  Currently it is also used by some implementations of
        the {Java Virtual Machine} under the name {JIT} (Just In Time
        compilation).
     
        [Peter L. Deutsch and Alan Schiffman. "Efficient
        Implementation of the Smalltalk-80 System", 11th Annual
        Symposium on Principles of Programming Languages, Jan 1984,
        pp. 297-302].
     
        (2002-04-15)