More evidence that the world has gone mad!

Perhaps they should all get together with these folks Linky

Incidentally there is a street in Upton-upon-Seven called Minge Lane...

Words and phrases change their meanings over time, or are just not in everyone's mental dictionary. The marketeers who named an antipodean teenager's first album, a radio, and the drinks machine in our office all "Pure" were not aware it was the Victorian slang for dog sh*t.
Any of you been out walking the dog this morning or covering your horse? Not he same as taking the dog for a walk (nor dogging) or putting a coat on your steed.

.

And again ... Toyota had a French problem with the MR2

MichaelG.

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

Wikipedia:Unusual_place_names

Neil

....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

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.

You mean the Ka-car?

pgk

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...

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

Didn't they do well

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

Time for the Willys Jeep, I think

MichaelG.

>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

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

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

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

Martin P

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

Funniest thing I’ve read in weeks!

Funniest thing I’ve read in weeks!

I see you've met my wife Howard

IanT