public和private一般意思为“公”和“私”，如：public business为“公共事务”，private affairs为“个人私事”，Public business comes before private affairs . The state comes before the family. 为“公而忘私, 国而忘家”. （见：《现代汉英综合大词典》）

但当与company搭配时，public和private不能简单翻译为“公”和“私”:

public company

A public company—also called a publicly traded company—is a corporation whose shareholders have a claim to part of the company's assets and profits. Through the free trade of shares of stock on stock exchanges or over-the-counter (OTC) markets, ownership of a public company is distributed among general public shareholders.

Public Company Definition

www.investopedia.com/terms/p/publiccompany.asp

private company

A private company is a firm held under private ownership. Private companies may issue stock and have shareholders, but their shares do not trade on public exchanges and are not issued through an initial public offering (IPO).

Private Company Definition - investopedia.com

www.investopedia.com/terms/p/privatecompany.asp

字典释义：

public

Capitalized in shares of stock that can be traded on the open market: a public company; took the company public.

private

Capitalized in shares of stock that are held by a relatively small number of owners and are not traded on the open market: a private company; a company that went private; took a company private.

某翻译书将下面这个句子译为：

Whether large or small, high-tech or low, public or private, every family-owned business is different.每一家族企业，无论规模大小，技术含量高低，众所周知还是默默无闻，都有其与众不同的特点。

这显然是有问题的。

注意他将public和private没有翻译为“公”和“私”，而是翻译为“众所周知”和“默默无闻”。这同样是不妥的。