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WordSafety – Check a name for unwanted meanings in foreign languages

wordsafety.com

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Re: WordSafety – Check a name for unwanted meanings in foreign languages

#101

Post by DavidAdams »

ecesena wrote: post #97

Suggestion for improvement: numbers. I was about to name a project "Plate88", and a couple of people independently pointed out a reference to the nazi salute [1]. We then renamed it to Plate28, hopefully safer. Anyway, maybe worth considering these use cases. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/88_(number)

When my son was about 5, he picked up on the fact that the number 88 sounds a lot like "idiot," so he got a lot of pleasure out of yelling "88" all the time. It's become part of our family folklore. I take a lot of pleasure associating white nationalism with the word idiot now.

Re: WordSafety – Check a name for unwanted meanings in foreign languages

#102

Post by olympus »

I saw this and immediately thought of an old story where General Motors tried to sell the Chevy Nova in South America. It hardly sold at all in South America even though it was a hugely popular car in North America. The reason turned out to be that "No va" in Spanish translates to "won't go" so GM was basically trying to sell a sporty car with a misleading name.

Unfortunately this website wouldn't have helped GM sell the Nova since it's only looking for profanity, but I think that the concept is great and clearly needed. I hope you develop it further and get to make some money off of it. Great job!

Re: WordSafety – Check a name for unwanted meanings in foreign languages

#103

Post by ecesena »

protomyth wrote: post #99
ecesena wrote: post #97

Suggestion for improvement: numbers. I was about to name a project "Plate88", and a couple of people independently pointed out a reference to the nazi salute [1]. We then renamed it to Plate28, hopefully safer. Anyway, maybe worth considering these use cases. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/88_(number)

Which brings us to the second part of naming things. I wouldn't tell someone in NASCAR country that 88 means a nazi salute unless you really want to offend.

Exactly -- we want to do a healthy/educational thing, imagine our surprise knowing that...

Re: WordSafety – Check a name for unwanted meanings in foreign languages

#107

Post by nerevarthelame »

olympus wrote: post #102

I saw this and immediately thought of an old story where General Motors tried to sell the Chevy Nova in South America. It hardly sold at all in South America even though it was a hugely popular car in North America. The reason turned out to be that "No va" in Spanish translates to "won't go" so GM was basically trying to sell a sporty car with a misleading name. Unfortunately this website wouldn't have helped GM sell…

For what it's worth, the "Nova" story is a myth: http://www.snopes.com/business/misxlate/nova.asp

Re: WordSafety – Check a name for unwanted meanings in foreign languages

#109

Post by [deleted] »

olympus wrote: post #102

I saw this and immediately thought of an old story where General Motors tried to sell the Chevy Nova in South America. It hardly sold at all in South America even though it was a hugely popular car in North America. The reason turned out to be that "No va" in Spanish translates to "won't go" so GM was basically trying to sell a sporty car with a misleading name. Unfortunately this website wouldn't have helped GM sell…

[deleted]

Re: WordSafety – Check a name for unwanted meanings in foreign languages

#110

Post by yetihehe »

pavlov wrote: post #54
aladdinw wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I will be happy to help with arabic words

Don't hesitate to submit on the site, it's very welcome! (I'm going to vet them manually when I have a moment.)

I've seen some words with bad meanings, like "cipa" means "polish: penis" according to your site, but it actually means "vagina" (quite the opposite ;) ). Is it good if I just submit better meanings ?
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