More evidence that the world has gone mad!

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Wjkipedia caters well for those of us with a puerile sense of humour:

Wikipedia:Unusual_place_names

Neil

[John Billard 1Participant @johnbillard1]

….and I understand that "Cortina" is dustbin in Italian and RR abandoned the name "Silver Mist" as mist can be a word for dung in Germany. It became the Silver Shadow.

John B

[Enough!Participant @enough]

Posted by John Billard 1 on 03/12/2019 18:17:14:

….and I understand that "Cortina" is dustbin in Italian

A Google search gives "Cortina" as a town in Northern Italy. It doesn't seem likely (to me) they would name a town "Dustbin".

I also know from first hand experience how careful Ford Motor Co was in naming its vehicles.

[pgk pgkParticipant @pgkpgk17461]

Posted by Bandersnatch on 03/12/2019 19:19:44:

I also know from first hand experience how careful Ford Motor Co was in naming its vehicles.

You mean the Ka-car?

pgk

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Posted by John Billard 1 on 03/12/2019 18:17:14:

….and I understand that "Cortina" is dustbin in Italian …

John B

A memory glitch maybe? The idea Cortina was rude rang a bell with me too. I see in Spanish it can be an 'escape de gas', which may not be polite…

[mike TParticipant @miket56243]

I also know from first hand experience how careful Ford Motor Co was in naming its vehicles.

And then there was the Capri, which sounds the same as Capre, which is Italian for Goats.

Didn't they do well

[vintage engineerParticipant @vintageengineer]

Ford sold a car in Brazil called a Pinto. Unfortunately it is Portuguese slang for little dick!

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Time for the Willys Jeep, I think

MichaelG.

[Enough!Participant @enough]

>Cortina was rude rang a bell with me too. I see in Spanish it can be an 'escape de gas'

>Capri, which sounds the same as Capre, which is Italian for Goats.

>Ford sold a car in Brazil called a Pinto. Unfortunately it is Portuguese slang for little dick!

All of this and other stuff in this thread is what I see as "internet anecdotal".

OTOH Ford spent at least a year researching proposed vehicle names and what connotations might arise in countries they sold in. They had a small group which did that full time.

(This is going back to the 60's. Languages change over the years and new meanings are invented …. certainly in English and presumably other languages too.)

 

Edited By Bandersnatch on 04/12/2019 01:58:19

[Anthony KnightsParticipant @anthonyknights16741]

I have heard that the Vauxhall NOVA was not popular in Spain.

[HopperParticipant @hopper]

Same as the Chevy Nova in the US. In Mexico that translated as NoGo.

And AFAIK, Cortina means curtain in both Spanish and Italian. Viz: Cortina de'l Ferro = Iron Curtain.

In Australia, Mitsubishi had a car called Pajero, which is Spanish pejoritive literally meaning "straw man". Guess they never sold it in Mexico.

Edited By Hopper on 04/12/2019 08:59:09

[martin perman 1Participant @martinperman1]

I've always wondered why Ford never mad a Ka si

Martin P

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

If you are sufficiently determined, you can take offence at anything!

Some people will say NO before they know what the question is. Why don't they go get a life, like the rest of us?

(Maybe taking offence IS their life )

Howard

[Mark Gould 1Participant @markgould1]

Posted by Clive India on 03/12/2019 09:14:18:

Posted by Michael Gilligan on 03/12/2019 08:40:53:

Ah … that nicely complements the infamous Scunthorpe problem MichaelG.

A friend came from there and, when he was away, called it Shorpe, since there wasn't one in Scunthorpe when he wasn't there!

Funniest thing I’ve read in weeks!

[Mark Gould 1Participant @markgould1]

Posted by Clive India on 03/12/2019 09:14:18:

Posted by Michael Gilligan on 03/12/2019 08:40:53:

Ah … that nicely complements the infamous Scunthorpe problem MichaelG.

A friend came from there and, when he was away, called it Shorpe, since there wasn't one in Scunthorpe when he wasn't there!

Funniest thing I’ve read in weeks!

[IanTParticipant @iant]

Posted by Howard Lewis on 04/12/2019 16:51:00:

Some people will say NO before they know what the question is.

Howard

I see you've met my wife Howard

IanT

[Bill PhinnParticipant @billphinn90025]

Posted by davidk on 03/12/2019 10:28:06:

Yesterday I called BT and renewed my mobile phone contract. In response they sent two emails to my BTinternet email account, saying thanks for renewing etc. What did my BT mail account do with the two emails from BT? Put them in the spam folder of course…

Edited By davidk on 03/12/2019 10:29:26

BT to a Chinese person's ears sounds exactly like the Chinese word for "snot".

https://translate.google.com/#view=home&op=translate&sl=auto&tl=zh-CN&text=snot

[John ReeseParticipant @johnreese12848]

They are all crazy except you and me. Sometimes I wonder about you.

[Mark Simpson 1Participant @marksimpson1]

Mt first experience of this was when we had to submit our CAD software for virus and spyware checking to a specialist company employed by the UK nuclear sector, late 80's I think, it was all submitted on 1/2" magnetic tape I remember sending it off with a courier.

We then spent some weeks renaming hundreds of fortran routines in our cable analysis software, because the company didn't like the names of the internal routines…. They could find nothing wrong with the software, but did not like the names…. Utter madness, but they paid to have it changed; so we could sell them the software… Strange World

[Stuart BridgerParticipant @stuartbridger82290]

I work for a US software company. There is currently a debate going around regarding the terms whitelist and blacklist. These are industry standard terms for inclusion or exclusion of objects. However there is a concern amongst some that the terms are no longer PC. Given how much other work we need to to keep our product ahead of the market, it's certainly not got to the top of the list.

[vintage engineerParticipant @vintageengineer]

They have a problem in Spain as they are starting to get PC. The Spanish word for the colour black is Negra and Negro!

Don't confuse coño and cono!

Edited By vintage engineer on 07/12/2019 10:25:56

[noel shelleyParticipant @noelshelley55608]

One doesn't like to criticize when there are so few of us perfect ones left !

[roy entwistleParticipant @royentwistle24699]

Oh Lord, it's hard to be humble etc

Roy

[Brian WoodParticipant @brianwood45127]

There was the fiasco of the new breakfast cereal in the USA some time ago called HITS

Stacked on a shelf they read HITSHITSHITSHITS——

Brian

Edited By Brian Wood on 07/12/2019 17:53:43

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