Entrepreneur is a silly word, and you sound silly when you call yourself one • Hacker News Board

Re: Entrepreneur is a silly word, and you sound silly when you call yourself one

#71

Post by loso » Sat, Sep 27, 2014, 1:00 AM UTC

mcguire wrote: post #66

loso wrote: post #31

I am going to guess this is a silicon valley hang up because of people being funded. He kind of makes that point towards the end of the article. If you are someone who starts a business the traditional way, win or fail, I think you earned the right to be called an entrepreneur. You are taking a big risk which is scary and invigorating at the same time.

" I think you earned the right to be called an entrepreneur. " The problem is that most of the people who have "earned the right" wouldn't be caught dead calling themselves "entrepreneurs". My plumber is an entrepreneur, my doctor is an entrepreneur, and my accountant is an entrepreneur. They all call themselves "plumbers", "doctors", or "accountants". "Entrepreneur", in fact, doesn't seem to convey any actual inform…

I agree with you. Most people who own a business wouldn't call themselves an entrepreneur as a label. But they are entrepreneurs and would consider themselves one. I could be wrong but what I got from the article is that he wouldn't call these people entrepreneurs at all.

Re: Entrepreneur is a silly word, and you sound silly when you call yourself one

#72

Post by mga226 » Sat, Sep 27, 2014, 3:24 AM UTC

ibebrett wrote: post #39

vorg wrote: post #33

> Entrepreneur is the pinnacle of this to me, because it's very pronunciation makes it sound so... bourgeois... pompous. Perhaps you spend too much time around those people who still pronounce "entrepreneur" with the "-pre-" sound in the middle, instead of the more Anglocized "entreneur". Not dropping that 5th syllable in the middle is what makes it sound so pompous.

I have never in my life heard it pronounced without the -pre- sound.

Agreed. Where do you live that this is typical?

Re: Entrepreneur is a silly word, and you sound silly when you call yourself one

#73

Post by quonn » Sat, Sep 27, 2014, 8:14 PM UTC

karmajunkie wrote: post #67

quonn wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't stand corrected. The german word is Unternehmer which literally means "under-taker". This is probably not a coincidence and the french meaning is probably the same.

As a point of linguistic curiousity, would a more accurate literal translation be "one who undertakes", or perhaps "one who engages in", given the fairly specific meaning of "undertaker" in English?

Yes.